* Chris Hoogendyk <[email protected]> [20140305 14:16]: > We are finally looking at replacing our aging AIT5 tape libraries > (EOL on AIT is 2016, no support or repairs after that). > > I figured the Amanda users list would be the best place to look for > recommendations. > > It's a bit hard to find real reviews of IT stuff. They are usually > either PR or just feature lists. I'm interested in price, but also > reliability. I don't want to pick the cheapest and find it failing > before a year is out. But I also don't have a budget to go for the > most expensive. > > So, LTO, SAS, at least 24 slots, probably 1 drive with room to add another.
This is just my 2c. YMMV. I have had good luck with an Overland Neo400S, 48 slots, up to 4 sas lto5 tape drive (if you want to break the bank. we only have one). Purchased it 3 years ago and the only problem was a bad drive this summer. Check the Neo200S if you want to have 24 slots or less. But you're locked in at 24 or less if you go this way. There is room for 2 sas lto5 drives (half height). Not sure if they support lto6 drives though... Tapeѕ: I have a lot of Fujifilm and a few Quantums. Got a few odd ones over the years, like the amanda label getting corrupted but I suspect these were more hickups due from either the drives and or the library/tape HBA. If you go lto5: Consider carefully how you will build and use your holding disk: a lto5 streams from ~40mbs (iirc) to 120mbs. It's an hungry beast. To get full performance from the holding disk to the drive you'll have to have multiple spindles because in a typical amdump run there will be a few dumps to the holding disk and probably one taper to the tape. How to choose to do that depends on you --and the amount of cash you're willing to throw at it. In our setup we have an external array of 14 sas 15k (chassis is a supermicro) Seagates drives in a raid10 software raid linux. Those disks are set in a passthrough mode with a LSI MegaRaid 9211 HBA. Works like a charm. Even with multiple dumpers going to the array I get full stream at 120mbs to the tape. hth! jf > > Any comments, suggestions, good/bad experiences, etc. > > Also tape brand quality and reliability. > > > -- > --------------- > > Chris Hoogendyk > > - > O__ ---- Systems Administrator > c/ /'_ --- Biology & Geology Departments > (*) \(*) -- 347 Morrill Science Center > ~~~~~~~~~~ - University of Massachusetts, Amherst > > <[email protected]> > > --------------- > > Erdös 4 -- <° >< Jean-François Malouin Systems/Network Manager | McConnell Brain Imaging Centre | MNI 3801 University St, Suite WB219, Montreal, QC, H3A 2B4, Canada
