Criteria
Definition
Humidity
20-80 percent relative humidity noncondensing
Clearance
Back: Minimum of 15.4 cm (6 inches)
Front: Minimum of 30.8 cm (12 inches)
Sides: Minimum of 5.08 cm (2 inches)
FC connection information
Connect the FC tape drive directly to the server with an HBA or indirectly through a SAN with an FC switch.
Table 8: FC drive interface speeds
LTO generation
Supported speeds
LTO-3, LTO-4
1 Gb, 2 Gb, 4 Gb
LTO-5, LTO-6, LTO-7, LTO-8
2 Gb, 4 Gb, 8 Gb
Most supported tape drives have two FC ports. Only one port can be used at a time, but both ports can be
connected for path failover or with software that supports multipath. If you are using only one port, you can
use either port. Path failover is a licensed library feature.
Direct connection
The host must have a 2 Gb, 4 Gb, 8 Gb, or 16 Gb FC HBA. A 4 Gb HBA is recommended for LTO-4 tape
drives. An 8 Gb or faster HBA is recommended for LTO-5 and later generation tape drives. To verify that an
HBA is supported on your server and qualified for the tape drive, see the DAPR compatibility matrix at:
www.hpe.com/storage/DAPRcompatibility
A server that has FC-attached hard drives performs best with at least two FC ports. Using the same FC port
for disk and tape drive access can cause performance degradation.
SAN connection
All switches between the host and the tape drive must be of the appropriate type. A 2 Gb switch in the path
might cause performance degradation when backing up highly compressible data.
Configure zoning on the FC switch so that only the backup servers can access the tape drive. For more
information, see the switch documentation.
Cable requirements
An FC cable is required for each FC port you plan to use. The tape drive has an LC-style connector. The
maximum cable length is based on the tape drive and external cable type.
Drive type
Cable type
2 Gb
4 Gb
8 Gb
All
OM2
0.5 - 300 m
0.5 - 150 m
Not supported
LTO-5 HH*
OM3, OM4
0.5 - 300 m
0.5 - 150 m
0.5 - 50 m
Table Continued
FC connection information
27
