A tape device is created for each combination of rewind type and compression capability. Therefore, a tape drive or tape library can have several tape devices associated with it. You must specify a tape device to move, write, or read tapes.

When you install a tape drive or tape library on a storage system, ONTAP creates tape devices associated with the tape drive or tape library.

ONTAP detects tape drives and tape libraries and assigns logical numbers and tape devices to them. ONTAP detects the Fibre Channel, SAS, and parallel SCSI tape drives and libraries when they are connected to the interface ports. ONTAP detects these drives when their interfaces are enabled.