YoYotta and LTO-9 - Full Support for LTO-9 Drives and 18TB Tapes
YoYotta LTFS and YoYotta Automation now include full support for LTO-9 drives and 18TB tapes.
Here's a YoYotta Workflow video.
This new video shown below runs through the differences of LTO-9 compared to previous generations.
LTO-9 was finally released by the LTO
consortium after
being delayed from its original date of
Q1 2021.
in this video we're going to take a
quick look at some of the pluses and
minuses of moving to LTO-9
the main benefit will be capacity
up 50 from LTO-8 to 18 terabytes native and up to 45 terabytes compressed
although in real world situations you are much more likely to see 20 terabytes
or less depending on what you are writing to the tape there are also speed
improvements that will see full height drives writing at 400 megabytes per
second, half height
drives will not see an increase in speed
from their current 300 megabytes per
second. Each new generation of LTO has always
been more expensive to start with when
comparing cost per terabyte to the
previous generation. LTO-9 is no different,
expect to pay about $180 per tape or 10
dollars per terabyte for LTO-9
as opposed to eighty dollars per tape or
six dollars and sixty six cents per
terabyte for LTO-8
the price will fall considerably over
the next two years however it is a big
factor to consider if you're planning a
move to LTO-9 early on.
LTO-9 will support reading and writing of
LTO-8 tapes but there will be no support
for LTO-7 reading this is the same
behavior as LTO-8 which supports read
write for LTO-7 but no support for LTO-6,
don't let this catch you out if you are
moving from LTO-7 where there is support
for reading and writing LTO-6 and reading
LTO-5. LTO-9 increases the number of tracks used
to write data on tape and requires much
greater precision
as a result it is necessary to run a
media optimization on the tape prior to
use
this creates a reference calibration for
each cartridge that enables the tape
drive's intelligent alignment to
optimize data placement on each track
the media optimization will need to be
run on the first load of the LTO-9 tape
and should be run in the same
environment where the tape will be
written, it is a one-time operation that
can be completed on any drive in that
environment enabling the media to be
used across all tape drives without
further optimization. Media optimization averages 40 minutes
per first load of a cartridge to a tape
drive although most media optimizations
will complete within 60 minutes some may
take up to two hours to complete worth
bearing in mind if you are working in a
time sensitive environment
LTO-9 sees a decrease in its temperature
and humidity range for both operating
conditions and storage
this should not affect most users but
again it's worth keeping in mind
recommended operating conditions for
LTO-9 along with short-term and long-term
storage have been standardized. Temperature should be kept between 15
degrees celsius and 25 degrees celsius
and relative humidity between 20
and 50 percent.
full height LTO-9 drives are available
now with half height drives coming at
the start of 2022
YoYotta version 3 build 195 and up has full
support for these new drives.
Contact your BackupWorks Account rep today and
ask about LTO-9 and YoYotta Software