On Mon, Apr 07, 2003 at 11:19:02AM -0400, Joshua Baker-LePain wrote:
> 
> Heh.  I've got the exact same unit, and am similarly pleased with it.  I 
> particularly like the ability, using the mail slot, to load a tape not in 
> the magazine without unloading the magazine or any tapes from it.  The 
> scalability is nice too.

I can only hope that one day I have two of these things with four drives
doing some crazy Amanda RAIT action.  ;-)

> Of course, as Toralf was looking at a 1U unit, I'm guessing that space 
> might be an issue.  It's only fair to warn him that the Overland is huge 
> -- mine's a table-top unit, but I'm guessing it'd take up about 6U in a 
> rack.

True.  Mine actually is rackmounted and it takes up 4U.  I can see where
the 1U would win in a hosted environment where you're renting rack
space.  If, however, he is deploying in his own space I'd say it's worth
the extra 3U to not have to load all 8 tapes in and out through the mail
slot everytime he wants to change what's loaded in the library.  I am
assuming that's also worth a couple thousand extra bucks to him -- which
if his time is worth anything it probably is worth a couple thousand
bucks up front, time being money and all.  Come to think of it when I
was requesting quotes when we bought our Overland I believe the Overland
LibraryPros were price competitive if not cheaper than the Sony LIB-162s
overall, despite being much sturdier hardware as far as I can tell.

At any rate, Toralf should buy what he likes and feels comfortable with
but I'm definitely putting in my two cents for the Overland products as
being reliable, fast, and scalable and I'll personally attest that they
work like butter with amanda and chg-zd-mtx.

[ They really oughta pay me for endorsing their products, no? ;-) ]

Brandon D. Valentine
-- 
Systems Administrator
Center for Structural Biology
Vanderbilt University