Mixed media in drives

Not all cartridges that are supported by the TS4500 tape library are compatible with all drives. LTO cartridges are not supported by 3592 tape drives, and 3592 tape cartridges are not supported by LTO drives.

When labeled according to IBM bar code label specifications, the last character of the volume serial (VOLSER) number of an LTO cartridge indicates the first drive generation that supports the media. For example:
  • 000764L9 is an LTO 9 cartridge
  • 000764L8 is an LTO 8 cartridge
  • 000764M8 is an LTO M8 cartridge
  • 000764L7 is an LTO 7 cartridge
  • 000764L6 is an LTO 6 cartridge
  • 000764L5 is an LTO 5 cartridge
On a 3592 tape cartridge, the IBM® product label represents whether it is a read/write (R/W) cartridge or a write-once-read-many (WORM) cartridge. In addition, the last 2 characters of the VOLSER indicate the media type.
Note: Each bar code must be unique across the entire physical library.