When Will I Be Asked To Enter The Key; What Happens If I Don't Remember The Key; Does Encryption Affect Tape Drive Performance; Does The Tape Drive Encrypt Media In An Earlier Ultrium Format - HP StorageWorks User Manual

When will I be asked to enter the key?

Encryption is primarily designed to protect the media once it is offline and to prevent it being accessed
from another machine. You will be able to read and append the encrypted media without being
prompted for a key as long as it is being accessed by the machine and application that first encrypted
it.
There are two main instances when you will need to know the key:
If you try to import the media to another machine or another instance of the backup application
If you are recovering your system after a disaster

What happens if I don't remember the key?

If you are unable to supply the key when requested to do so, neither you nor HP Support will be able
to access the encrypted data.
This guarantees the security of your data, but also means that you must be careful in the management
of the encryption key used to generate the tape.
WARNING!
You should keep a record or backup of your encryption keys and store them in a secure place separate
from the computer running the backup software.

Does encryption affect tape drive performance?

Hardware encryption can be used with or without compression and without speed or capacity penalties.

Does the tape drive encrypt media in an earlier Ultrium format?

Encryption is supported only on Ultrium 3 TB media (C7975A or C7975W) and Ultrium 1.6 TB media
(C7974A or C7974W).
Encrypted Ultrium 3 TB and 1.6 TB tapes can be read on any compatible Ultrium tape drive that
supports hardware encryption. (HP Ultrium LTO-5 tape drives can read and write encrypted Ultrium
3 TB media and Ultrium 1.6 TB media; HP Ultrium LTO-4 tape drives can read and write encrypted
Ultrium 1.6 TB media.)
Hardware encryption is not supported on any earlier Ultrium media, such as Ultrium 800 GB and
Ultrium 400 GB.

Where can I get more information?

For more information about AES encryption, encryption keys, and using hardware encryption with
your HP Ultrium tape drive, see
index.html or refer to the White Papers on
tapewhitepapers.html.
For detailed instructions about enabling encryption please refer to the documentation supplied with
your backup application. This will also highlight any default states, for example when copying tapes,
that may need changing if using encrypted tapes.
50 Use the correct media
http://h18006.www1.hp.com/products/storageworks/lto4Encryp/
http://h18006.www1.hp.com/storage/