LTO3 to LTO5 (and another one)

[willhwalker]

We are getting ready to upgrade our backup heads to accept LTO5 (from LTO3). Is there anything we need to do to prepare for this or will NBU just "see" it.. I'm running this on Windows server 2k8 R2 and NBU version 7.5.0.6...

Another little question is the previous owner had email notifications come to him for cleaning (I'm a new employee).. I've looked at Host Properties-->Global Attributes, and see the email address but is that for cleaning reminders too???

[SymTerry]

Are you replacing physical heads in the drives, or the drives themselves? If your installing a new drive you will want install it with the OS and then run the hardware wizard in NetBackup. That will allow NetBackup to use it.

[willhwalker]

thank you for replying... it is the physical heads that are being replaced

[SymTerry · Accepted solution]

If there is any firmware updates that need to be done to utilize the heads, then that could also require new drivers. in that case remove from NetBackup, install new drivers, readd to NetBackup. Iv'e seen many cases where new drivers and remove readd to NetBackup were required after firmware updates. 

If no firmware updates are done, this might be transparent to NetBackup. You would have to test.

[Marianne · Accepted solution]

One more thing that you need to consider : How will you restore from LTO3 media? Will you leave 1 or 2 LTO3 drives in the robot or use LTO5 drives to read the LTO3 tapes? If you want to use new drives to read old tapes, you will need to temporarily change the density of 1 drive to match the old media. Also ensure that new LTO5 media added to the robot is added with the correct density that matches the tape drives (normally hcart2 ). I have seen odd cases where NBU has added new media as dlt.