Installing additional drive - how will VBR handle this

[BostjanUNIJA]

Hi.
We have two Tape libraries.

Tape library 1: IBM TS3100
LT06 tape drive

Tape library 2: IBM TS4300
LT08 tape drive

We have two seperated Windows machines on where each library is installed.
WinMachine1 on which TS3100 is attached (and correct IBM drivers installed on it) is represented to VBR as TapeServer1.
And WinMachine2 on which TS4300 is attached (and correct IBM drivers installed on it) is represented to VBR as TapeServer2.

We were making tape jobs with TS3100 (with LT06 tape drive) for the past several years and now we wish to retire TS3100 and start using TS4300 with LT08.
We still need access to LT06 backups and we have just realized that LT08 tape drive is not compatible/unable to read LT06 tapes.

We are thinking about physically uninstalling LT06 tape drive from TS3100 and physically installing it to TS4300 library.

So library TS4300 at the end will have now two tape drives:
LT08 tape drive and LT06 tape drive.

Questions:
1. We have a dedicated Windows server 2022 tape server published over VBR that handles/represent current TS4300 which currently only has LT08 tape drive installed.
When we will physically add LT06 tape drive into the TS4300 library, this means we will need to install also drivers for LT06 tape drive. Has anyone ever done this? Can you have IBM Tape drive LT08 and tape drive LT06 drivers installed on same Windows machine?

2. How does VBR handle a library with two drives?
In our scenario we will use LT06 drive only to read/restore data from LT06 tapes, but we do not intend to make any tape backups to LT06 tapes.
New tape jobs will only write and use LT08 tapes / tape drive. Is that double (having LT06 drive in 1 library only for reading all backups, and having LT08 drive (in same library) for making new tape backups)?

Thank you!

[Dima P.]

Hello Bostjan,

When we will physically add LT06 tape drive into the TS4300 library, this means we will need to install also drivers for LT06 tape drive. Has anyone ever done this? Can you have IBM Tape drive LT08 and tape drive LT06 drivers installed on same Windows machine?

It's possible, some folks have such setups.

Is that double (having LT06 drive in 1 library only for reading all backups, and having LT08 drive (in same library) for making new tape backups)?

Yes, such setup is possible. However, if possible, I'd recommend to partition such library to avoid possible management issues and to keep LTO6 away from LTO8 tapes on a logical level.

[BostjanUNIJA]

Dima hi.
Thank you for your reply.
Can you explain please what do you mean to partition such library?
By partition you mean having seperated Media Pools for LT06 and LT08 or something else?
Thank you.

[Dima P.]

Hello Bostjan,

Can you explain please what do you mean to partition such library?

Here you go: Using multiple logical libraries

By partition you mean having seperated Media Pools for LT06 and LT08 or something else?

Additionally this one also a good idea to avoid management complexity and keep one tape media generation away from another. Thank you!

[BostjanUNIJA]

Thank you.