Quantum m2500 tape library doesn’t allow you to install a 6th drive

This has got to be up there as one of the dumbest things I have ever seen.  My company has a Quantum m2500 Tape Library.  We had four drives installed and wanted to upgrade it to six drives.  Should be easy right?  Wrong!  My coworker installed the two new drives.  He rebooted the device, but drive 3 wouldn’t come up.  I did some research and found out that drive 3 should be the last to be installed.  I also found out that if you want to enable all six drives, you have to call Quantum to come onsite and “install special software.”  Turns out that the “special software” is just disabling one of the tape magazines.  So your options are:

Up to five tape drives and up to 84 DLT/SDLT cartridges or 100 LTO cartridges

OR 

Six tape drives and up to 73 DLT/SDLT cartridges or 87 LTO cartridges

Documentation can be found here: http://downloads.quantum.com/m1500/642300204A01.pdf

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One response to “Quantum m2500 tape library doesn’t allow you to install a 6th drive

  1. Arthur Webster

    Well, you got the title right – Techno Bable!
    I wish I knew what you are talking about because it sounds fascinating and puts me in mind of the 1970’s when I was one of 6 operators per shift on an AEI1010 main frame. This machine filled a purpose built air conditioned block, had 45 magnetic tape readers, 10 card readers and two punched paper tape readers and millions of valves (tubes)!

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