> Given that I've got ~500GB across 20 (Unix) machines to back up, that the
> ADSM server must run on AIX, and the hardware budget for the system is 
> <<$100K,
> any suggestions as to what I should be looking for?  I'm assuming that I'll
> want some sort of tape library, and probaby a better machine than the
> RS6000 320s that we've got lying around...  I expect I'll want at least
> DLT, if not MagStar (and there is the possibility of serious deep discount
> from IBM since we're .edu).
> Thanks for any advice.
> Pat Wilson
> paw AT northstar.dartmouth DOT edu

You're probably looking at a DLT ATL of some type.  A 3494 with 2/3590
drives will cost you at or near $100K all by themselves.  I'm sure the
prices have come down since we bought our 18months ago though.  We've
got a 4 processor G30 (120MHz processors) and at maximum load (~25
systems at one time) it still has lots of power left over.   About 550
clients with a 9GB database and expiration takes about 1.5-2hrs.  The
biggest bottle neck we see is I/O to the database.   You might want to
buy a system you can upgrade the processor on later and save some money
there but, spend the money upfront on a good solution to database I/O,
say a decent RAID 5 system with 16M or 32M of cache or plan on heavy
mirroring.  The only real wait time we see on our systems is when our
7137 RAID gets to 80+% usage.

--
  Keith A. Crabb          Keith AT UH DOT EDU               0-
  Keith A. Crabb          Keith AT UH DOT EDU               0-
  University of Houston   Operating Systems Specialist  +1-713-743-1530