Chapter 2 — Architecture Overview
Robotic Controller Connectivity
The library requires either an LTO drive or a RIM2 to provide the robotic
control path. When configuring a storage partition, the device you select to
provide the robotic control path is referred to as the "exporting controller"
for the partition. The exporting controller makes the partition accessible to
the hosts as a media changer (a library). It receives the media changer
commands sent from the host to the library and relays them to the RCM,
which in turn processes them into the motion commands used to control
the robotics.
You can select multiple exporting controllers (drives or RIM2s) for a
partition and use your host software to export the same changer interface
over the controllers to provide redundancy.
When a RIM2 is not present, a direct‐attached Fibre Channel or SAS
When a RIM2 is present, it can be used to provide the robotic control
Control Path Through a Direct-Attached Drive
In a direct‐attached drive configuration, one or more drives in a storage
partition are designated as the exporting drive (also know as the exporting
controller). The commands from the host to control the motion of the
robotics within the partition are routed to the exporting drive's logical unit
number 1 (LUN 1). Commands to control the operation of the exporting
drive are sent from the host to LUN 0 of the drive.
August 2019
drive provides the robotic control path, as described in Control Path
Through a Direct‐Attached Drive, below.
path, as described in Control Path Through a RIM2 on page 61.
If you have multiple storage partitions, you must designate
Notes:
an exporting drive for each partition.
A drive can only provide the robotic control path for the
partition to which it is assigned.
You can select multiple drives as controllers, and export the
same changer interface over the drives to provide
redundancy, as long as your storage management software
can support this. These multiple paths cannot be used at the
same time.
Assigning multiple drive exporters to one partition reduces the
total number of partitions that can be configured in the library.
Fibre Channel Connectivity
User Guide—Spectra T950V Library
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