From 9cc812c9658cc2c1531551dc8883035aa82440a2 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Massimo Scagliola Date: Tue, 4 Jul 2023 20:15:47 +0200 Subject: [PATCH] first commit --- README.md | 33 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 33 insertions(+) create mode 100644 README.md diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4e94bd2 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,33 @@ +# LTO9 Optimizer + +This is a simple bash script to initialize/optimize LTO9 physical tapes. + +## The problem + +Enterprise LTO9 tapes are cool, but if you buy them in stocks of 1,000, or even 2,000, you potentially need [weeks](https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/ts4500-tape-library?topic=drives-media-optimization) before using them. +A single tape is held from 20 minutes up to 2 hours in the drive. + +I find unnerving that enterprise tape libraries are sold without a feature to do this automatically, so I wrote this simple bash script. + +## The solution + +Connect the Tape Library to a Linux server using SAS or FiberChannel (I only have tested FC), then run `lsscsi -g | grep medium` to get the special device of the changer, which will be something like `/dev/sgX`. + +Then you can run the command: + +`optimizer.sh ` + +Where 'parallelism' is a number, which can be equal to the number of the drives of the library/partition. + +The script takes **long** pauses to avoid too many load/unload commands, so... be patient. + +It has been tested with both: +- IBM TS4500 Tape Library +- Quantum i6000 Tape Library + +## Fun facts + +Up today, 4th of July, 2023, none of the major brands of Tape Libraries could provide a tool capable of this. I wrote the script in a day, then tested and fixed it. + +Total time spent: 3 days. +Total money earned: none, so I'll just put it here. \ No newline at end of file