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.

When the tape library has multiple drives YoYotta decides which drive to use.
It does this by constantly monitors the tape drive usage, so each job will use the drives with the least head usage. This spreads the usage across all drives, prolonging drive head life.

All tapes in the library must have a barcode label, six characters identifying the tape and then two characters to identify the tape generation.
Without this the library will not know which tape to load.
If the library drives are of different generations, for example two LTO-7 and one LTO-9 drive then YoYotta will always choose the right drive depending on the tape generation.
If NO BARCODE is shown then either the label is missing or it is unreadable.

Make sure that the full 6+2 barcode label is shown for each tape in the table. For example here the data tapes all have a suffix of L7 indicating LTO-7.
If only 6 characters are shown in the table then adjust the barcode settings using the LTO library webpage so that all charcters are sent to YoYotta.
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 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.
With a single tape drive run the same job twice to make two copies. Select the first tape and click Add COPY #1.
When the job completes verification, remove the tape from the destination table, select the safety tape and click Add COPY #1 again.

Start the archive

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

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

Spanning larger archives across multiple tapes

Add the source folder that needs to be archived. YoYotta will index the folder and show the total size.
Work out roughly how many tapes will be needed, no harm to include one or two extra tapes to the job.
If they are not needed they won't be formatted so they can be used for another job.
Make sure the tapes all have barcode labels and put them into the library in any order using any slots.
Click the + button above the Destination table, select all the tapes and click the Append COPY #1 button.
Start the job.
Tapes will be loaded and formatted automatically (if blank) then mounted and written. No need to open the LTFS panel.
When all files have been written the tapes that have been used will be verified.
On completion the Project Browser will show which files are on each tape.

When archiving you should always create two copies.
If the library only contains one tape drive then the same job can be run for a second time.
When the first set of tapes have been verified then click the minus - button to remove them from the destination table.
Now select the second set of tapes and click Append COPY #1 again. Then start the job again.

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 in the library.
All the tapes for the job must be in the library.
Do not remove any tapes used in the job until it is finished.

Creating two spanned copies in parallel using a library containing two tape drives

If the library has two or more tape drives then YoYotta can create two copies in parallel, so follow the steps above to setup COPY #1, then select and append the same number of tapes to COPY #2.

The destination table now shows COPY #1 and COPY #2.
The files from the source drive will just be read once and they will be written to both tapes at the same time. Two duplicate sets of tapes will be created in half the time.

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 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 SAS cards.
A Thunderbolt enclosure holds one or more PCIe cards. Use this to connect to a desktop SAS LTO drive or tape library.

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 all MagStor tape libraries including the M1000, M2000, M3000 and the PetaByte Machine M3280
MagStor can also provide support and parts for other makes of tape libraries.

We purchased a MagStor M2000 tape library over four years ago for the YoYotta Lab, it's working well and has archived many petabytes of data.

Overland-Tandberg Libraries

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

Overland-Tandberg have closed and are no longer providing support for their tape drives and tape libraries.
Support and spare parts including new library drives can be purchased from MagStor.
There is more information here about MagStor's support for Overland Tandberg users

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