IBM TS2290 SAS Tape Drive Model H9S incorporates IBM Half-Height Linear Tape-Open (LTO) Ultrium 9 tape drive technology for increased capacity and reliability
IBM TS2290 Tape Drive (machine type 3580 model H9S) is an external, stand-alone or rack mountable unit designed to offer capacity for the mid-range systems environment.
It incorporates IBM LTO-9 HH SAS tape drives and is designed to support LTO-9 media spec native data rate performance of up to 300Mb/s, and up to 75 Mb/s with 2.5 to 1 compression.
It supports the LTO-9 specs for LTO tape drive technology, and LTO-9 media to a compressed capacity of up to 45TB with 2.5 to 1 compression (up to 18TB native capacity) compared to previous LTO-8 compressed capacity of up to 30TB with 2.5 to 1 compression (up to 12TB native capacity) per tape cartridge. It can read and write LTO-9 and -8 cartridges. It is encryption-capable and designed to support application-managed encryption.
TS2290 tape drives use a 12Gb dual-port SAS interface for connection to a spectrum of system servers, including select Power Systems models, Pureflex systems, and BladeCenters. It also supports Windows and Unix OSs.
The following TS2290 HH LTO-9 tape drive enhancements are designed to help improve performance, capacity, and reliability:
- Native LTO-9 media spec data transfer rate of up to 300Mb/s and up to 750Mb/s with 2.5 to 1 compression
- LTO-9 media spec tape cartridge native capacity support of 18TB and compressed capacity of up to 45TB with 2.5 to 1 compression
- 12Gb SAS attachment
- 1GB internal buffer
- Application-managed encryption support for HH LTO-9 SAS tape drive
- 16KB cartridge memory with LTO-9 media
- HH drive form factor
- 2 SAS ports per drive for improved availability and attachability
- IBM LTFS partitioning support
The enclosure width enables 2 TS2290 storage units to be mounted side by side in a 19-inch IBM server rack mount shelf kit, requiring 2U of rack space.
TS2290 tape drives provide a migration path from digital linear tape (DLT or SDLT), 1/4″ in (QIC), 4mm (DAT), 8mm, or older LTO gen tape drives.
Other media forms like disk have not really replaced tape in most data centers. Instead, tape has continued to be used for storage archiving, and with the continued improvements in tape technology, tape is taking a more prominent role in a data center for both backup and archive. LTO tape is high in capacity and performance, reliable, and still the lowest priced save/restore solution.
Key requirements
Appropriate levels of host software are required to attach the IBM TS2290 tape drive to select Power Systems, Unix, and PC servers.
