Hi,

From LTO Generation Compatibility Details | LTO Ultrium: 

• LTO drive generations 1-7 are able to read tapes from two generations prior and are able to write to tapes from the prior generation.
  
  
• LTO-8 drives can read and write to LTO-7 and LTO-8 media, including
  LTO-7 Type M.
  
  
• LTO-9 drives can read and write to LTO-8 and LTO-9 media only.

From a DP perspective, different tape versions can be managed by using different pools

Hi,

I checked it and we use the LTO6 drive. So, its able to use the LTO7.

But I don't quite understand the last sentence.  Can't I use 2 different types of tape in one pool? If I have a "weekly" pool defined, can't I put different types of tapes in this pool?

Thank you in advance.

You can do whatever you like, but if you mix different versions in the same pool then you risk loading a tape for writing which cannot be used as the hardware does not allow it. Hence my suggestion to keep them separated. Obviously if all the media you have are all writeable and readable by all drives you have then there's no real concern.

Now if you are using an LTO6 drive then you obviusly cannot use any LTO7 tapes. Forward compatibility would be strange in my humble opinion. 

Hey Koen,

if I want to replace from LTO 6 to LTO7 in a pool, should I just use copy and then remove the LTO6 cassettes?

Thank u in advance.

As already explained, an LTO-7 device can perfectly read LTO-6 media. The way I would go is: create a new pool for the new LTO-7 tapes and reconfigure devices to use the new pool. Like that the old LTO-6 media can be kept in the old pool as long as they contain protected data. Once all data is expired the tapes can be exported, removed and the pool can be deleted. If some of them are taking too long to expire then you may copy them over from 1 pool to the other (or tape by tape) as you suggested, indeed.