Differences between hcart and hcart2?

[quantum-it]

We are using NetBack Up with a single IBM 3580-HH5 half-height LTO5 drive (non-robotic). 

What should the media type for that particular type of drive be defined as?  HCART?  HCART2?

[sri_vani]

the references HCART, HCART2, HCART3 are essentially labels used to differentiate between  different drives/media types within a NetBackup environment.

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/netbackup-tape-drive-configuration#comment-4041541

[SymTerry]

Like sri vani said,

NetBackup has media types to differentiate the media that have different physical characteristics. This is to prevent a tape being loaded in a drive that can't interact with it, and eventually an error saying it cant do the load operation requested.

For a list of Media Types and the tape related, look at HOWTO34151. It has a nice chart that lays out the types NetBackup recognizes.

[mph999 · Accepted solution]

... think of the hcart / hcart2 etc as different colours ...

eg.

hcart = green

hcart2 = orange

4mm = blue

Now you just allocate the LTO5 tapes as the 'colour' of your choice ...  There is only one rule ...

A tape of colour 'xx' can only go into a drive of the same colour.

Back in the real world this would mean a hcart tape will only go into an hcart drive.  A 4mm tape will only go into a 4mm drive and so on.

So pick any you want, as long as the tape and drive are given the same density, they will work together.

There is no technical meaning, an LTO6 tape defined with say a 4mm density will work exactly the same as if it was defined as sat an hcart2 tape.