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 - Quantum LTO-6 User Manual

encryption for this feature to work. The software supplied with the tape drive provides this support.
See http://www.quantum.com/ServiceandSupport/index.aspx for an up-to-date list of other suitable
backup software.

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 Quantum 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!
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 LTO–6 Ultrium 6.25 TB media, LTO–5 Ultrium 3 TB media and
LTO–4 Ultrium 1.6 TB media.
Encrypted LTO Ultrium 6.25 TB, 3 TB and 1.6 TB tapes can be read on any compatible Ultrium tape
drive that supports hardware encryption.
LTO-6 Ultrium tape drives can read and write encrypted LTO–6 Ultrium 6.25 TB media and
Ultrium 3 TB media; they can read Ultrium 1.6 TB media.
LTO-5 Ultrium tape drives can read and write encrypted LTO–5 Ultrium 3 TB media and Ultrium
1.6 TB media.
LTO-4 Ultrium tape drives can read and write encrypted LTO–4 Ultrium 1.6 TB media.
Hardware encryption is not supported on any earlier Ultrium media, such as LTO–3 Ultrium 800 GB
and LTO–2 Ultrium 400 GB.
You should keep a record or backup of your encryption keys and store them in a secure
LTO-6 Ultrium tape drives and encryption 23