We're looking for recommendations for/against models of tape libraries
that would support dual AIT-3 drives and at least 12 slots now, but
leave us well positioned for incremental growth over the next few
years, both in slots and perhaps drive technologies.

[Let's try to avoid AIT v. LTO v. SDLT v. ... wars.]

We're currently using a Sony AIT-2 stand-alone drive (current use -
about 4MB/s writing) and a Quantum DLT-4 drive (legacy use - about
1MB/s writing).  This has served us well for 3 years now, but we've
just outstripped its capacity, beyond any clever scheduling.

We've gotten lots of glossies and pitches, and some rough numbers from
various dealers on Quantum, Overland, and Spectrum units among others.
The trouble is cutting through the hype and getting to decision-making
information.

Goals:

   Reliability - 5 nines not needed, but virtually no unscheduled downtime
     (so far, 2 days *partial* downtime over nearly 7 years).
   Expandability - ability to preserve this investment
   Reasonable Cost control - overspecing and overpricing will kill the project,
     but underspecing affects reliability, expandability & investment.
   Backwards compatibility - read existing media pool (AIT-2 and some
     AIT-1) and perhaps recycle it in time for incrementals (O(4-9GB/day)).
   SCSI3 - No SAN available yet
   Straightforward use in Legato Networker Environment - i.e. nearly drop-in
   Fit in 40u or less of 19" rack or shelving (though could have more space).

I currently envision something in the 20-50 slot range, dual drives,
with ability to initially "cut down" on licensing costs (by using only
10-12 slots at first then dynamically increasing licensing and slots in
use on demand up to full use of all slots), then expand the library in
2-3 years now while preserving a reasonable part of the current
investment.  Of course my vision could be terribly off, hence my queries.


The target environment:

  A mix 60-75% of backups from software development arm (by weight of
  backups), plus balance from MIS needs of the company.

  Existing AIT-2 and old DLT-III installations (drives, not changers)
  stick around (need to read old tapes and large media pool investments)

  Legato Networker

  Mix of *ix and windows clients - 18 now but growing rapidly, with
  system retirements few and far between.

 Plus:

  Constant growth of existing infrastructure now approaching 2TB and
  growth of something like 50%/yr.

  Full backups running around 400-500GB (much of the 2TB is "recreateable")
  and taking 16 hours (attributable to a mix of occasional network
  saturation, constant drive saturation and some basic old-client slowness).

  Recent addition of MS Exchange 2000 cluster (run by MIS).

  Building out new server [Sun 280R w/ gigabit ethernet and dual scsi3 lvd]


Fred Korz        Manager, Development Support, System Management Arts
korz AT smarts DOT com                                          914 798 8546

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