DAT, LTO and DVD Enclosure From IBM

IBM announced the IBM System Storage 7214 Tape and DVD Enclosure Express (Model 1U2), designed to attach to specific models of the IBM Power Systems and IBM System p5 models through an external serial attached SCSI (SAS) adapter.

The 7214 Express delivers external tape or optical drive options that allow customers to transfer data with similar archival storage and retrieval technologies already installed in existing IT facilities.

Optional drive technologies
available in the 7214 Express offering are:

DAT72 36 GB Tape Drive: Read-write compatible with DAT72 and DDS4 data cartridges, and read-only compatible with DDS3 data cartridges.
DAT160 80 GB Tape Drive: Read-write compatible with DAT160 and DAT72 data cartridges, and read-only compatible with DDS4 data cartridges.
Half-high LTO Ultrium 4 800 GB Tape Drive: Read-write compatible with LTO Ultrium 4 and LTO Ultrium 3 data cartridges, and read-only compatible with Ultrium 2 data cartridges.
DVD-RAM – 9.4 GB Slim Optical Drive.
DVD-ROM – 9.4 GB Slim Optical Drive.

Most standard DVD disks can be used in the 7214 Express DVD drive

Key prerequisites

IBM Power Systems software options:

AIX

Level 5L for Power V5.3 with the 5300-07 Technology Level and Service Pack 4, or later
Level 5L for Power V5.3 with the 5300-06 Technology Level and Service Pack 7, or later
Level 5L for Power V5.3 with 5300-08 Technology Level
Level V6.1 with Service Pack 5, or later
Level V6.1 with 6100-01 Technology Level

Linux

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP1 for Power Systems, or later
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power V4.6, or later
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power V5.1, or later

IBM i (OS/400)

IBM i 5.4.5 operating system, IBM i 6.1 operating system, or later

IBM System p5 Server software options:

AIX

Level 5L for Power V5.3 with the 5300-07 Technology Level and Service Pack 7, or later
Level V6.1 with 6100-00 Technology Level, or later

Linux

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP1, or later
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power V4.6, or later

PCI-X DDR Dual-x4 External SAS Controller Adapter must be installed in order to attach 7214 Express to IBM Power Servers or System p5 Servers. Attaching 7214 to an IBM Power Server or System p5 Server through the integrated SAS adapter is not supported. The boot function is not supported when attaching 7214 to IBM System p5 Servers.

Planned availability date: July 17, 2009