Files in this download contain Licensed Materials, property of IBM, (C) Copyright IBM Corp. 1998-2023. All Rights Reserved. See the Licensing agreement presented when the driver is downloaded. The readme files contain information that may not be included in the IBM Tape Device Driver Installation and User's Guide (IUG). The readme files take precedence over the IUG.Therefore, any information in this file that conflicts with information in the IUG will supercede the IUG. IBM Tape Device Driver for Windows Platforms The IBM Tape Device Drivers for the Windows platforms are responsible for assisting in Windows host application to tape device communication. The tape driver for Windows (IBMTape) works with IBM System Storage Tape Products in providing basic and advanced tape functionality for backup/restore and archive environments. ATTENTION: NTutil provides only a subset of device and command support that the IBM Tape Diagnostic Tool (ITDT) provides. The functions and capabilities of NTutil are now performed by ITDT. Please use ITDT in place of NTutil, as NTutil is deprecated. IBM Tape Diagnostic Tool (ITDT) provides the customer with functionality to perform maintenance tasks and run diagnostic tasks to determine tape device issues. This is available to download with the device driver. "IBM Tape Device Driver Installation and User's Guide" describes the IBM Tape and Medium Changer Device Drivers for AIX, HP-UX, Linux, Solaris, and Windows operating systems. This is available to download at: http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=577&uid=ssg1S7002972 Supported Operating Systems The tape driver for Windows (IBMTape) is developed to support various versions of Windows. For details on supported tape attachment please refer to the System Storage Interoperation Center website. Also refer to this link for hardware configurations suppot. http://www.ibm.com/systems/support/storage/config/ssic/ Supported Applications If you use a third party application, consult with your application provider as to the compatibility with IBMTape. http://www.ibm.com/systems/resources/lto_isv_matrix.pdf Tape Drivers for Windows The standard tape driver for Windows (IBMTape) is named IBMTape.__nnnn.zip, where specifies the architecture platform, may specify an operating system version of Windows, and nnnn is the version number of the driver. IBMTape.x86_6nnn.zip - used for Windows 2003*, running on x86 IBMTape.x64_6nnn.zip - used for Windows 2003*, running on AMD64 and EM64T IBMTape.x86_w08_6nnn.zip - used for Windows 2008, running on x86 IBMTape.x64_w08_6nnn.zip - used for Windows 2008, running on AMD64 and EM64T IBMTape.x64_w12_6nnn.zip - used for Windows 2012, running on AMD64 and EM64T IBMTape.x64_w16_6nnn.zip - used for Windows 2016, running on AMD64 and EM64T The WHQL certified tape driver for Windows (prior to IBMTape V6.2.3.3) is named IBMTape.__nnnn__Cert.zip, where specifies the architecture platform, may specify an operating system version of Windows, nnnn is the version number of the driver, and specifies the IBMTape product certified. Also, the WHQL files prior to IBMTape V6.2.3.3 are divided in two packages, one for the drivers for the Tape Drives, and other for the drivers for the Tape Libraries. Both packages has to be downloaded and installed separately. The WHQL files are different in that they have the CERT in the title: IBMTape.x86_6nnn.zip - used for Windows 2003*, running on x86 IBMTape.x64_6nnn.zip - used for Windows 2003*, running on AMD64 and EM64T IBMTape.x86_w08_6nnn.zip - used for Windows 2008, running on x86 IBMTape.x64_w08_6nnn.zip - used for Windows 2008, running on AMD64 and EM64T IBMTape.x64_w12_6nnn.zip - used for Windows 2012, running on AMD64 and EM64T Where xxx is the certified product(s) name. For example: IBMTape.x64_6nnn_LTO2-5_3592_E05-6_Tape_Drive_Cert.zip - Microsoft WHQL Certified driver for Windows 2003*, for LTO2 to LTO5 and 3592 E05 and E06 Tape Drives, running on AMD64 IBMTape.x64_6xxx_3573_Tape_Library_Cert.zip - Microsoft WHQL Certified driver for Windows 2003*, for 3573 Tape Library only, running on AMD64 Starting with WHQL IBMTape V6.2.3.3 there is only one package by architecture and all products are included into one package and they are named as follows: IBMTape.x86_w08_6nnn_WHQL_Cert.zip - Microsoft WHQL Certified driver for Windows 2008, running on x86 IBMTape.x64_w08_6nnn_WHQL_Cert.zip - Microsoft WHQL Certified driver for Windows 2008, running on AMD64 IBMTape.x64_w12_6nnn_WHQL_Cert.zip - Microsoft WHQL Certified driver for Windows 2012, running on AMD64 IBMTape.x64_w16_6nnn_WHQL_Cert.zip - Microsoft WHQL Certified driver for Windows 2016, running on AMD64 Starting with WHQL IBMTape V7.0.1.1 there is only one package for all supported OS, all products are included into one package and they are named as follows: IBMTape.x64_7nnn_WHQL_Cert.zip - Microsoft WHQL Certified driver for Windows running on AMD64 ======================================================================== IBMTape Notices: 1) Starting on V6.2.6.8 only WHQL driver packages will be released. 2) IBMTape device driver do not support System Managed Encryption on Windows 2012 R2. 3) When troubles installing the driver on Winodws 2012 (usually by bad previous install/uninstall) some times is required to use windows pnputil tool to remove/install the driver. After IUG driver uninstall procedure (after reboot) use pnputl -e to figure if any IBM Tape driver remains in Windows store, if so use pnputil -f to force the removal. When Windows store reestablishes old IBM Tape driver version use pnputil -i -a IBMTape_Directory_Path\*.inf before installing with the IUG documented installation process. 4) When performing power on reset (power cable pulls) to the 3592-E06 and 3592-E07 tape drives, after a successful Control Path Failover, old changer path could not be reconfigured automatically by Windows Device manager, the medium changer library will need to be reconfigured manually. Perform a Device Manager refresh and if needed right click to the device and under properties-driver perform a driver update manually select the correct IBM driver. 5) The tape device driver has a support limitation for 1024 tape devices starting on V6.2.1.7. 6) To backup data in IBM SAS drives in the fixed blocksize mode, the blocksize must be set to a multiple of 4; otherwise it will cause the open or set blocksize commands to fail. 7) A potential loss of data may occur if you are using V6.1.5.4 or V6.1.4.8 of the device driver with Data Path Failover enabled. This bug happens very rarely, but if you are using either of those versions, we recommend that you double-click DisableDPF.reg from the driver install package and reboot your system, or update your driver to the latest supported level on the FTP site. 8) Version 6.1.6.2 and later versions of the device driver have an option for enforcing file names for tape drives that will persist across reboots of the operating system. For example, if your tape drive has the name \\.\tape3 and the persistent naming option is used, then \\.\tape3 will be reserved for use by that device after an operating system reboot. To take advantage of this feature, place a DWORD value in the registry called PersistentNaming and assign it a value 1 at: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\ibmtp2k3 and reboot your system. 9) V6.1.3.8 and later versions of the IBM tape driver support application-managed encryption on TS1120 tape drives. For more information, see Device Driver Installation and Users guide reference above. 10) When running in an environment that includes TS7510 virtual tape drives, DPF must be disabled. Install the driver, run DisableDPF.reg from the driver install package, and reboot your system. Since the TS7510 emulates the TS1120, the driver cannot distinguish between the two devices, and DPF must be disabled for the entire environment. 11) A crash resulting in a blue screen with bug check code 0xB8 has been observed when running Intel IA64 Itanium systems with QLogic driver version 9.1.2.16. To fix this issue, customers must install Micro- soft hotfix KB912944. At this time, customers must contact Microsoft directly to obtain this hotfix. For further information, see http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=912944. 12) All files with the zip extension need to be downloaded to your workstation in binary mode. ======================================================================== ******************** * HBA Restrictions * ******************** 1) Windows/Emulex: No support for direct attachment to tape storage devices with the Emulex-based 8Gb host bus adapters. Link failures when direct connected will cause the host to lose communication with the tape storage device, and a host reboot will be needed to regain communication between the host bus adapter and the device. Windows/Emulex: When HBA topology setting is set to auto-topology in an N-port/F-port environment, the HBA may run out of B2B credits (due to link failures), and then will abend job due to a known issue during the link reset recovery procedure. To avoid this situation, it is recommended that the HBA topology setting is set to N-port/Fport. 2) Restriction for IBM Ultra 320 SCSI PCIe Controller (43W4324): Tape Storage attachment to this adapter card limited to blocksizes equal to or less than 64K. ========================================================================