When we are at recommendations:
Starline (in Kirchheim/Teck) in Germany is definitely offering great
support and all kind of storage/server solutions. They usually make sure
you will have everything you need such as barcodes for the tapes AND
barcodes for the cleaning cardridges, as they are different!
They don't care if you go small, medium, big or data warehouse and offer
always the great support. Have worked with them so many years, always happy.
Cheers
T
Rob Gerber schrieb am 27.06.23 um 18:57:
Not sure why you want to support LTO-6 tapes. Maybe you want to be
able to read old backups using the new system?
As others have said, definitely recommend using LTO-8 or LTO-9.
If you need the ability to read older backups on LTO-6 media, maybe
you could install a single LTO-6 drive into a modern tape changer. As
far as sourcing an LTO-6 drive, used or refurbished is probably your
only option here unless you already have a suitable LTO-6 drive. LTO-7
drives should be able to read LTO-6 media, if you can't find an LTO-6
drive.
I bought our organization's hardware from backupworks.com
<http://backupworks.com> in the USA. They were really helpful when it
came to selecting hardware. I don't have an affiliation or any profit
motive here, just that's who we went through and I've found them to be
very helpful.
We went with a Qualstar q24 library and a single LTO-8 SAS drive. You
may be interested in the Qualstar Q40, which expandable up to 280
slots or so. The other Qualstar libraries are not expandable. The Q40
base unit contains the robot, and the expansion modules just have
slots for drives. They save money by using only one robot to service
all the drives, so expansion modules aren't terribly expensive. Most
of the cost of a library will be the drives, not the library itself.
https://www.backupworks.com/Qualstar-Q40-LTO-8-Tape-Library.aspx
AFAIK most libraries are built by the same company these days, some
outfit in germany. Most drives are built by IBM or HP, with only IBM
developing new tape mechanisms at this point in time.
When considering different library manufacturers, knowing that the
libraries were just rebadged offerings from the same company made it a
lot easier to select a product. I can say that I saw some offerings
from HP that locked away some of the library slots behind a license,
which I didn't care for at all. Sell me my hardware and let me use it
all, you *$%#^&s.
FYI if you want to be able to read old backups on LTO-6 media, you'll
need to get software set up to read those backups. Bacula uses its own
format.
If you're considering sticking with LTO-6 media because you already
have a bunch of LTO-6 tapes, I advise you to strongly consider
upgrading to newer media standards like LTO 8 or LTO 9. Your cost per
TB will be MUCH lower for the newer formats.
Regardless of whether you buy new media or try to use existing LTO-6
media, you'll need unique barcode labels for each tape. It's
imperative that you apply the labels carefully and that they're within
the indented area designated for the barcodes. Many tape robot jam
issues are related to improper labeling, from what I read.
Regards,
Robert Gerber
402-237-8692
r...@craeon.net
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