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LinearTapeFileSystem / ltfs

Reference implementation of the LTFS format Spec for stand alone tape drive
BSD 3-Clause "New" or "Revised" License
243 stars 72 forks source link

Compatibility and advice #470

Open rkearsley opened 1 month ago

rkearsley commented 1 month ago

As a new user to the LTO & LTFS world (who has not yet purchased LTO hardware), it would be appreciated to include some help and advice to make sure I choose the correct hardware to be compatible with this LTFS project

It would be great if there were more complete info in the readme stating "compatible / not compatible / not tested" for the various manufacturers and models. It would also be great to clear up the inconsistency of "rebadged" devices - e.g. is my device YYY actually a rebadged XXX and so should be compatible with the project

Info from manufactures is sketchy and always pushing towards windows based software (I'm not interested), and Linux / open source alternatives are not well documented by the manufacturers

For example the drive that seems to be widely available for me is the Overland Tandberg LTO9HH SAS (1060009S-001) which comes inside a NEOs T24. Before I make the purchase I want to be sure that the hardware will be compatible with this excellent LTFS project and I will be able to build a backup solution using Linux. I have heard rumours that this it's a rebadged IBM drive but have no concrete info to be able to make a decision. Will it be compatible?

Many thanks Richard

piste-jp commented 1 month ago

Hi @rkearsley ,

As README, Objective of this project is being the reference implementation of the LTFS format Specifications in SNIA for (mainly) LTFS vendors like IBM, HP and Tandberg. So providing vendor specific LTO drives and HBA's compatibility is completely out-of-scope and we don't have enough resource (including money) to have them and test them in this project.

Please contact to the drive vendor if you want to know specific drive and HBA combination can be used in LTFS. And please use the module released from the vendor if you can't accept any mispick and glitch.

For OEM information, we don't have any information about that. Please contact to the vendor if you want to know also.

In my understanding, IBM just recompile this project and create their own package with a few additional configuration file. So the code in this project works on the drives listed in IBM LTFS list.