Mix tape media type on the same subclient

hello @North  

That's an interesting question! Could you provide more details about the specific scenario you're considering?
Are you looking at performance impacts or do you have two tape libraries and are inquiring about compatibility issues between LTO8 and LTO9?

I'd love to help!

Best Regards,
Mohamed Ramadan
Data Protection Specialist

Hi Mohamed,

Thanks for getting back. 

Background,

• 1 new LTO 9 library (2 drives) with limited new LTO9 media
• Need to leverage existing LTO8 media
• 1 storage policy with several subclients
• 1 scratch pool for above storage policy with 1 barcode pattern only

Question is that if that 1 scratch pool with 1 barcode pattern will allow mix media type, LTO8 and LTO9? Any special consideration for this scenario?

Thanks,

Stephen

Hello Stephen,

I hope you're doing well.

I apologize for the delay in my response.

I haven't encountered a scenario like this before, so I will check with my team to see if they have any experience or insights on this situation. I’ll get back to you as soon as I have more information.

Best Regards,
Mohamed Ramadan
Data Protection Specialist

​@North do you mean the same library has different drive types?

Can you take a look at the below doc link and see if it helps?

https://documentation.commvault.com/11.20/libraries_with_mixed_drive_types_configuration.html

Hi ​@North ,

the subclient is not dependend on any media type.

The addressed Storage Policy Copy’s data paths are the location, where you need to look at.
Your Storage Pools Primary Copy has Tape Storage data paths associated. ( or in case of legacy configurations, each of your Storage Policy Copies )
This addresses Libraries, drivepools and Spare Media Pools.
Even within the same Library, it is possible to use different media and drive types.
Simply add data paths pointing to different Libraries, tape drives and Spare Media Groups.

Absolutely no problem to mix media and drive types in the same Storage Policy Copy.

Only if it comes to restores, the media agent used for the restore, requires access to all types of media/drives, that have been used during backup of the data.

This is the only real restriction I currently can think of.
A restore job is bound to one media agent. If this one is not able to access all data, the restore will fail.

Other situation when running backups. Multiple media agents and data paths can be used within one multistream backup job. This can lead to the result, that yesterday’s backup has been written to LTO8 and todays is placed on LTO9. During a restore both media types might be required.

rgds
Klaus

​@Abhishek Narulkar ​@johanningk 

Thanks for the KB on the mix drive type and the confirmation on mixing tape media as well as the restore consideration. 

We will give it a try in the coming future when new device arrives.

Thanks again and have a great weekend!

Stephen

End up using different scratch pool, high capacity one for full backup, lower capacity for incremental backup. Full storage policy has a embedded incremental policy. It works well.