Supported Media Types

The library models support media validation for the following media types:

• SL150 - LTO media validation only
• SL3000 - T10000 media validation only
• SL8500 - LTO and T10000 media validation

Increased Security with Reduced Cost and Complexity

Media validation is done internally by the drives themselves, providing several advantages over validation methods offered by other vendors. Data in your tape library system is kept secure because there is no need to send it across a network to a separate application. Costs are reduced because there is no need for a dedicated host server or additional host software to read information from the media and drives, and there is no need for additional Fibre Channel data connections to the drives.

No Disruption to Library Production Operations

Validation drives are not available for use by host applications, but if a host requires media that is being validated, the host request takes priority. The library interrupts the validation, dismounts the media from the drive, and makes the media available to the application. This is done transparently to the application.

Assurance of Valid Test Results

To confirm the validity of all media validation tests, STA provides optional drive calibration and qualification features. Calibration ensures that validation drives are in good working order, and qualification ensures that the validation drives remain calibrated and failed validations are the result of problems with the media, not the drive. These features operate without user intervention once they are configured and enabled.

Automated Validation Operations

With STA, you can define policies for automatically selecting media for validation. For example, you could define policies to initiate validations whenever media health falls to Action or whenever a drive detects a bad media information record (MIR). STA automatically queues the media for validation on a a compatible drive. STA can initiate and process multiple validations simultaneously, depending on the number of drives you have set aside for validation activities.

User Management of Validation Requests

You can use STA to manage the validation request queue. You can reprioritize pending validation requests, cancel in-progress requests, and initiate validations manually.

Limit to Validation Frequency

To prevent the overuse of data media, STA does not allow a piece of media to be validated more than once in a 24-hour period. This applies to both manual and automated validation requests.

Comprehensive Reporting of Validation Results

STA displays the results of all validation activities performed in your tape library system. This includes validations initiated by other applications, such as Oracle's StorageTek SLC and Oracle's StorageTek Storage Archive Manager (SAM). STA analyzes validation results and makes recommendations for action you should take.

When a media validation is in process, the drive is reserved to the initiating application and not available to any others. Oracle recommends performing media validations through one application at a time to avoid potential drive reservation conflicts.