YoYotta LTO Library options

Library tapes and drives

YoYotta monitors the library for changes and shows all the loaded tapes on the left, the empty slots on the right. The tape drives are shown at the bottom. There are buttons to manually move, format, mount and eject tapes, but YoYotta will do all this automatically.
YoYotta Library supports up to 180 tape slots. Both mail slots and ordinary slots can be used for tapes, so no spaces are wasted. However it can be quicker to open just the mail slot on a library so the Export button will automatically move a tape into a mail slot.
When a tape is loaded into a drive, then the table will show a yellow status for that slot.

If a slot is unavailable then a red status will be shown in the table, check that the library tape trays and mail slots are closed.

When LTO-9 tapes are loaded if a red status is shown then this indicates that the tapes might not be initialised. YoYotta will not be able to use these tapes. Open the Library webpage and run the Media Init process, this will load the new tapes into a drive and run the initialisation process, which will take from 30 minutes up to 2 hours per tape. The slot status will then be shown as green and the tapes can be used.

With multiple drives you can run multiple jobs at once, any mix of archive and restore. If drives aren't available then YoYotta will queue the jobs until drives are available.

Make sure that the full 6+2 barcode label is shown for each tape in the table. For example here Slot 2 has a tape barcode YY8021 with L8 indicating LTO-8.
If only 6 characters are shown then adjust the barcode settings using the LTO library webpage.
For all libraries set left alignment for barcode labels and 8 character label length.
HPE Barcode Length Reported to Host : 8
IBM Barcode Length returned to Host : 8
Quantum Set Media Barcode Format : Plus Six

YoYotta supports up to eight LTO drives. However since LTO-7 tape drives have got a lot faster and it’s hard for a single computer to provide enough bus bandwidth to keep 8 restores or 4 jobs writing to dual tape sets. This is a typical workflow for a 8 drive library and is before looking at NAS/SAN speed. So often it makes sense to partition a larger library and then connect two or more YoYotta systems. Splitting up the workflow like this maintains high performance. Use YoYotta Server to sync the metadata from each Mac.

Multi LTO Library option

The Multi library option supports up to four tape libraries connected to a single Mac.
Here there are two dual drive LTO-5 libraries, a dual drive LTO-8 library and two standalone tape drives.
Great for migrating tapes. The Multi option also supports up to 500 tape slots per library for those large restore jobs.

Another use case is connecting multiple 1U single tape drive libraries and using them as different destinations for a one or more jobs. Allowing main and safety copies to be created in parallel.

LTO tapes

All tapes must have barcode labels
The labels have a unique 6 character code with either L5, L6, L7, M8, L8 or L9 on the end for LTO-5, LTO-6, LTO-7, LTO-8 or LTO-9 tapes. For example 123456L5, ABCDEFL6, YO1234L6, 17376AL5.
YoYotta will use the barcode to format the tape. No need to manually enter the barcode. This is an LTO standard, using more than 6 characters means that the tapes will be difficult to use.

Select the tapes needed for the archive

In this example we have a two drive library and need two copies. So select a main and safety tape and click Add COPY #1,2.

Start the archive

Blank tapes will automatically be formatted with the correct barcode, saving time.

YoYotta constantly monitors the usage of the tape drives, each job will be sent to drives with the least usage. This means no drive gets used more than others, prolonging drive head life.

LTO + Asset Metadata

After the archive completes snapshots + metadata for the archived assets will be stored in the Project Browser.
Then Restore files using the Project Browser
Or use the Conform option to restore clips from archive using editorial timeline AAF, ALE, CSV, EDL or FCPXML files

Append more tapes for larger archives

Use all the library slots including mailslots as destinations. Make sure you append them to COPY #1. This will make a single copy that is spanned across multiple tapes.
If using a two drive library and making two copies in parallel, then also append enough tapes to COPY #2.

Tapes can be put into any slot, no need for a particular order inside the library.

Spanning larger archives across tapes

Tapes will only be used if needed and they will be loaded and formatted automatically (if blank) then mounted. No need to open the LTFS panel.
Always append one or two extra tapes to the job, if they are not needed they they won't be formatted or mounted and they can be used for another job.
On completion the Project Browser will show which files are on each tape.
When running a spanned archive Quick Verify should be turned off.
The maximum size of a spanned job is limited to the number of slots (including mailslots) in the library. Do not remove any tapes used in the job until it is finished.

Connecting a library to a Mac

Drives for libraries are available with SAS or Fibre Channel interfaces.
Use SAS libraries, they are cheaper, they use more durable cables, there is no configuration and SAS gives the same performance.
To connect a SAS or FC LTO-9, LTO-8, LTO-7, LTO-6 or LTO-5 drive to the new MacPro use the ATTO ExpressSAS H680, H1280 or H1280GT PCIe cards from ATTO.
H644 and H608 cards can also be used, but ensure they have the correct SAS connectors for your drive.
Each SAS connector can control up to four SAS drives using a SFF8088 to 4x SFF8088 cable.
See this link for more details on the ATTO.
To connect a Thunderbolt Mac to a SAS LTO library use an ATTO H680, H1280 or H1280GT card inside a Thunderbolt PCIe expansion unit, like the Sonnet Echo Express SEL.

The Sonnet Echo Express SEL is a compact Thunderbolt enclosure that holds a PCIe card like the ATTO H680/H1280. A lot of our customers use this to connect to a desktop SAS LTO drive or tape library. Get the Thunderbolt 3 unit as this means that there is plenty of bandwidth for multiple LTO drives and also daisy chaining other Thunderbolt units. The Apple TB3 -> TB2 adaptor allows connection to older Thunderbolt 2 Macs. There are also other units that hold more than one card.

It is not possible to set the Oracle SL150 control path to use a FC drive. To use it with macOS, there has to be at least one SAS drive in this library and use this as the control path.

HPE MSL Libraries

The YoYotta Library option supports HPE StoreEver 1/8, MSL2024, MSL3040, MSL4048, MSL6480, MSL8096

IBM TS Libraries

The YoYotta Library option supports IBM TS2900, TS3100, TS3200, TS4300

MagStor Libraries

The YoYotta Library option supports MagStor M1000, M2000, M3000 and the PetaByte Machine M3280

We purchased an M2000 three years ago for the YoYotta Lab, it's working well and has archived petabytes of data.

Overland-Tandberg Libraries

The YoYotta Library option supports NEO StorageLoader, T24, xl40 and xl80

Qualstar Libraries

The YoYotta Library option supports Q8, Q24, Q40, Q48 and Q80 tape libraries

Quantum Libraries

The YoYotta Library option supports Quantum i3, i6, SuperLoader 3, i40, i80 and i500

Spectra Libraries

The YoYotta Library option supports Spectra Stack, T50e and T120