3592 Tape Cartridges

This section describes the tape cartridges that are used by 3592 Tape Drives in the TS3500 Tape Library.
IBM 3592 Tape Cartridge
Tape cartridges can be distinguished by the text on the product label, as well as by the color of the label. Table 1 lists the characteristics of the 3592 Tape Cartridges.

Table 1. Supported IBM 3592 Tape Cartridges
Text on product label and type of media1 TS1140 (3592 E07) Native Capacity TS1130 (3592 E06) Native Capacity TS1120 (3592 E05) Native Capacity 3592 J1A Native Capacity Case color Label, door, and write-protect switch color
Data, JA Read only support 640 GB (596.04 GiB) E06 format
500 GB (465.66 GiB) E05 format
300 GB (279.39 GiB) J1A format
500 GB (465.66 GiB) E05 format
300 GB (279.39 GiB) J1A format
300 GB (J1A format) Black Dark blue
Extended data, JB 1600 GB (1490.12 GiB) E07 format
1000 GB (931.32 GiB) E06 format
1000 GB (931.32 GiB) 700 GB (651.93 GiB) Not supported Black Dark green
Advanced data, JC 4 TB (3.64 TiB) Not supported Not supported Not supported Black Dark purple
Economy, JJ Read only support 128 GB (119.21 GiB) E06 format
100 GB (93.13 GiB) E05 format
60 GB (58.88 GiB) J1A format
100 GB (93.13 GiB) E05 format
60 GB (58.88 GiB) J1A format
60 GB (58.88 GiB) J1A format Black Light blue
Advanced economy, JK 500 GB (465.66 GiB) Not supported Not supported Not supported Black Light purple
Cleaning, CLNxxxJA2 Not applicable Not applicable Not applicable Not applicable Black Gray
Notes:

  1. This designation appears as the last two characters on standard bar code labels. In addition, for cleaning cartridges, the first three characters of the volume serial (VOLSER) number are CLN.
  2. Where xxx equals three numerals.
Media Types
The media type is the format of the data cartridge. The media type of a cartridge is shown by the last two characters on standard bar code labels. Supported media types include:

JA
An Enterprise Tape Cartridge (ETC)
A JA cartridge can be used in native mode in a 3592 J1A drive or a 3592 E05 Tape Drive operating in either native mode or J1A emulation mode.
The native capacity of a JA tape cartridge used in a 3592 J1A drive or a 3592 E05 Tape Drive in J1A emulation mode is 300 GB (279.39 GiB). The native capacity of a JA tape cartridge used in a 3592 E05 Tape Drive drive in native mode is 500 GB (465.6 GiB).
This media type is only supported for read-only use with TS1140 Tape Drives.
JB
An Enterprise Extended-Length Tape Cartridge (ETCL)
Use of JB tape cartridges is supported only with TS1140 Tape Drives, TS1130 Tape Drives and TS1120 Tape Drives operating in native capacity mode. If your TS7700 Virtualization Engine shipped prior to January 26, 2007, and you intend to use JB tape cartridges, you should order FC 0521, Functional enhancement field.
When used with TS1140 Tape Drives, JB media that contains data written in native E05 mode is only supported for READ-ONLY operations. Once this data is reclaimed or written in E06 or E07 format, it is supported for READ-WRITE operations.
TS1120 Tape Drives operate in native E05 mode or in 3592 J1A emulation mode. However, all 3592 Tape Drives associated with the TS7700 Virtualization Engine must be TS1120 Tape Drives in order for 3592 E05 Tape Drives to operate in native E05 mode. To use 3592 E05 Tape Drives in native E05 mode, the drives must be set to E05 native mode. If you intend to use TS1120 Tape Drives in native E05 Mode, the minimum microcode levels are 8.0.1.xx for the TS7700 Virtualization Engine and 534.2x for the Library Manager. Use FC 0521, Functional enhancement field, to receive the most current levels of TS7700 and Library Manager code.
JC
An Enterprise Advanced Data Cartridge (EADC)
This media type is only supported for use with TS1140 Tape Drives.
JJ
An Enterprise Economy Tape Cartridge (EETC)
A JJ cartridge can be used in native mode in a 3592 J1A drive or a 3592 E05 Tape Drive operating in either native mode or J1A emulation mode.
The native capacity of a JJ tape cartridge used in a 3592 J1A drive or 3592 E05 Tape Drive in J1A emulation mode is 60 GB (58.88 GiB). The native capacity of a JJ tape cartridge used in a 3592 E05 Tape Drive in native mode is 100 GB (93.13 GiB).
This media type is only supported for read-only use with TS1140 Tape Drives.
JK
An Enterprise Advanced Economy Tape Cartridge (EAETC)
This media type is only supported for use with TS1140 Tape Drives.
Diagnostic and cleaning cartridges
CE
Customer Engineer (CE) diagnostic cartridge for use only by IBM service representatives. The VOLSER for this cartridge is CE xxxJA, where a space occurs immediately after CE and xxxequals three numerals.
CLN
Cleaning cartridge. The VOLSER for this cartridge is CLN xxxJA, where a space occurs immediately after CLN and xxx equals three numerals.

Note: When 3592 J1A drives (or 3592 E05 Tape Drives in J1A emulation) are replaced with 3592 E06 Tape Drives, the TS7700 Virtualization Engine marks the J1A-formatted tapes with active data FULL. By marking these tapes full, the TS7700 Virtualization Engine does not append more data since the 3592 E06 Tape Drive cannot append data to a J1A-formatted tape. As the active data on the J1A gets reclaimed or expired, the tape goes back to the scratch pool and then eventually gets reformatted to the E06 data format.