This is exciting. My department is seriously looking at investing in a
tape library. I've always wanted one to call my own ;-). So it is with
this happy news that I turn to you, the most helpful group of tape
library owners I am aware of.
I am seeking recommendations, testimonials if you will, from people
succesfully using AIT libraries with amanda. To aid in this, here's a
bit of background about our current setup and our projected budget &
storage goals.
We currently use a standalone SDX-300C AIT1 tape drive w/ 35GB tapes.
We run a 2week long 10tape Daily backup cycle and a Monthly 10tape
cycle. The Monthly cycle uses skip-incr, record no and chg-manual.
However, we are rapidly accumulating data beyond what I can
realistically do a chg-manual, skip-incr dump on.
I am interested in AIT libraries in the 15-16 tape size range. Solid
compatibility with amanda is a must. We are looking to spend obviously
as little as possible to get a quality product, but $10k is a very firm
ceiling and the closer to $5k we can hold the price, the more likely it
is to get funded. Rackmount is a must, though I'm not so concerned with
how many RUs it takes up. So far the only products I am really familiar
with are the Sony LIB-152 & LIB-162 series. I understand that Overland
Data and several other companies are also making AIT libraries. I'd be
interested to hear about those. Pros/Cons of them versus the Sony ones,
etc.
My other question is:
Does anyone know how backwards compatible AIT2/AIT3 drives are with AIT1
tapes? The reason I ask is that if the backwards compatibility is good
I would consider the extra cost of an AIT2 or 3 drive in the library up
front so that if (and when) the capacity of our existing tapes started
to become strained I could spring for the relatively cheap upgrade of a
new round of larger tapes. Those 100GB native capacity AIT3 tapes are
quite sexy.
Thanks,
--
Brandon D. Valentine <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Computer Geek, Center for Structural Biology
"This isn't rocket science -- but it _is_ computer science."
- Terry Lambert on [EMAIL PROTECTED]
