IBM's compact entry-level tape libraries, withdrawn from sale and officially replaced by the TS4300. Still running in many AS400/IBM i shops; here's the support and upgrade picture.
- Status
- Withdrawn from marketing; official IBM replacement is the TS4300
- Ts3100 Capacity
- Up to 24 LTO cartridge slots (2U chassis)
- Ts3200 Capacity
- Up to 48 LTO cartridge slots (4U chassis)
- Drive Support
- One full-height or up to two half-height drives (TS3100); up to two full-height or four half-height drives, or one full-height plus two half-height (TS3200)
- Highest Lto Generation Supported
- LTO Ultrium 7 (full-height and half-height)
- Availability
- No longer sold new; used and refurbished units remain in circulation
The TS3100 (2U, up to 24 slots) and TS3200 (4U, up to 48 slots) were IBM's compact entry-level tape libraries for years, and a lot of small-to-mid AS400/IBM i shops still have one running nightly saves. Both were withdrawn from sale, with IBM's TS4300 named as the official replacement product, and both top out at LTO Ultrium 7 drive support, which caps native cartridge capacity well below what current LTO 9 media offers. See the LTO Generation Guide for how LTO 7 capacity compares to current generations.
If a TS3100 or TS3200 is still running: the hardware itself is not the urgent issue if it is still reading and writing tapes reliably, but three things are worth checking. First, whether replacement parts (especially drive mechanisms) are still sourceable, since new-unit supply has stopped. Second, whether the LTO 7 media ceiling is forcing more manual tape changes than a current-generation library would need for the same backup window. Third, whether the backup software driving it (BRMS, Robot Save, or similar) is compatible with the SCSI/SAS command set on a replacement library, which is worth confirming before ordering a TS4300 as the swap-in.
For shops planning that swap, the direct upgrade path is the TS4300 for similar-scale environments, or a virtual tape library for shops that want to drop physical tape media handling entirely while keeping the same tape-compatible backup commands.