ADSM-L

Re: Tape drive recommendations

1999-09-22 13:40:45
Subject: Re: Tape drive recommendations
From: "Brian T. Huntley" <bth AT CLARKSON DOT EDU>
Date: Wed, 22 Sep 1999 13:40:45 -0400
We use a pair of IBM 3590 Drives, and have had very little difficulty with
them.  Ours happen to be in a 3494 Library, but "stand-alone" models are
available.  We had one mishap very early on w/ a glitch on a logic board
that was causing read errors every so often, but it was replaced under
warranty and we haven't had any problems since.  We have somewhere in
the order of 20-30 mounts per day, per drive. They are a little
expensive, but from my view, worth the money for the data security and
reliability we have seen.  They are also VERY fast, even with the 3:1
hardware compression enabled.

One note however, our drives get cleaned (automagically) periodically
based on meters of tape passed over the heads, and the number of mounts
performed. You may want to check with the company to see what the
recommendation is for cleaning frequency.  Do the errors show up more at
the beginning or end of the cleaning cycle, or is it consistent?


 On Wed, 22 Sep 1999, Marita Gonsalves wrote:

// Hello all:
// We're currently using DLT4700 Digital TZ887 tape drives for our backups (got
// them about 3 years ago).  We are finding it really hard to get people to
// repair/service these drives in our area.  I was told that these tape drives
// are obsolete and I should consider upgrading.     Is this true?   I'm not
// overly thrilled with the DLT tape drives because I invariably end up with a
// read or write error on a tape.  There are times when an audit vol fixes it
// but not always.  I do have a bunch of tapes with write errors that cannot be
// recycled.  I use a cleaning tape on these drives every month.    About 3% of
// my tapes have either read or write errors.  Is this fairly normal?
//
// I'm curious as to what tape drives you use and what kind of problems (if
// any) you've experienced.  If we have to upgrade or get a different type of
// tape drive, I would like to be able to make an informed decision.  Since
// we're a not-for-profit school, cost is a factor.  Also, I would need to be
// able to use the tapes I currently have.  Any suggestions/recommendations
// would be greatly appreciated.
//
//
//
// Marita Gonsalves
//

-
Best regards,
Best regards,
Brian

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Brian T. Huntley                         Systems and Network Engineer |
| Campus Information Services, Clarkson University                      |
| Ph/FAX: 315.268-2292/6570                                             |
| bth AT clarkson DOT edu                                 www.clarkson.edu/cis |
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