>> On Fri, 2 Feb 2007 11:22:49 -0500, Keith Arbogast <warbogas AT INDIANA DOT 
>> EDU> said:

> We are starting the process of replacing our 3494 tape library. It
> has ten 3590-E1A drives, about 2,500 cartridges, and supports two
> TSM servers.

> We have had preliminary talks with IBM about the 3584 ATL and 3592-
> E05 drive technologies. A technical rep told us, more or less, "No
> one is making copy pools with this new technology. They do not copy
> tapes from primary storage pools to a copy pool."

Liar, liar. Pants on fire.  You can tell your tech rep that from
me. ;) MTBF in normal working environments is not a useful guide.

I will say that if you've got an offsite, then you're probably well
covered and have no need to also maintain a second local copy.  But
tapes can have accidents.

Think of it this way.  You'll -eventually- need to move some tape with
your actual human hands.  You could drop it.  That would suck.

Humans aren't perfect.  Humans write drive firmware.  An extra copy,
somewhere is good. QED.  :)


> I would never consider this with our current tape technology, so it
> will be a giant leap of faith to stop creating them no matter how
> good the new technology is. However, people of my generation who
> think objects that look like bombs might really be bombs are heaped
> with ridicule by those who know they are merely cartoon characters.

IMO, the ridicule is because the actual hoax bomb event that took
place in Boston this week was swamped by the mooninites fiasco. They
hadn't arrested that fellow, last I heard.


- Allen S. Rout