A secure, scalable, and manageable centralized tape backup solution that can grow with ever-changing backup and recovery needs, while reducing IT staff involvement.
What is the HP StorageWorks LTO-4 Ultrium 1840 Tape Drive?
A1.
The LTO-4 Ultrium 1840 Tape Drive is the fourth generation in the HP Ultrium tape drives family. This LTO-4 tape drive from HP provides hardware encryption in addition to 1.6TB of compressed storage capacity.
Q2.
What level of encryption does the LTO-4 Ultrium 1840 Tape Drive offer?
A2.
LTO-4 uses the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) with the longest and most secure keys at 256 bits. AES-256 is implemented within Galois Counter Mode (GCM). This is a method of increasing AES security by efficiently adding Message Authentication Codes to ensure the integrity of the backup data stored on tape. The HP LTO-4 Ultrium 1840 Tape Drive is designed to be compliant with the emerging standard for tape drive security, IEEE 1619.1.
Q3.
What are the benefits of hardware based encryption at the ASIC level of the tape drive?
A3.
Performance. At normal block lengths (say 10KBytes and above), there will be no discernable performance loss due to encryption. This is in stark contrast to software encryption, where performance is significantly reduced. Also, LTO-4 tape drives implement hardware compression before encryption (compression of pre-encrypted data is impossible since it appears random). With software encryption, compression is not done causing significant capacity loss. Alternatively, at an even greater cost to performance, compression could be done in software. It is possible to buy “black box appliances” to do hardware encryption between computer and tape drive, but these significantly add to system complexity and cost, even if they are able to match tape drive encryption speeds
Q4.
Does HP offer LTO-4 media?
A4.
Yes HP does offer LTO-4 branded media.
Q5.
Can I encrypt LTO-3 tapes with the HP LTO-4 Ultrium 1840 Tape Drive?
A5.
No. Encryption is only supported in the LTO-4 format. The LTO-3 format does not support encryption. This applies to all LTO manufacturers. You can write unencrypted LTO-3 tapes with the HP LTO-4 Ultrium 1840 Tape Drive.
Q6.
Is mixed media supported in the MSL6000 Tape Libraries?
A6.
Each library unit must be homogenous technology. However, when scaling MSL5000 and MSL6000 tape libraries together, Ultrium and SDLT units can be joined together to support mixed media.
Q7.
Can I install LTO-4 Ultrium 1840 tape drives in my existing MSL6000 tape libraries?
A7.
Yes, the MSL6000 drive upgrade kits can be installed into either of the MSL5000 or MSL6000 tape library chassis. To achieve maximum performance of the tape drive, the embedded 4Gb FC interface card upgrade kit (e1200-320 4Gb) should be added to the library
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