Ed,
We use software compression and are writing about 108 Gbyte per tape (oracle
tablespace files). The 50 Gbyte capacity I quoted in my original email
message is correct - that's 50 Gbyte of compressed data going to tape. If
you uncompress that 50 Gbyte of data, you end up with more. I haven't
delved into what it would take to do hardware compression instead of
software compression (our jukebox says that our AIT-3 drives won't do
hardware compression, so whether its a license or a dip switch setting or
something else).
>From my experience, Networker's report on how much data is on the tape is
how many bytes were pushed to the tape. If I have 200 Gbyte of data and
send it as is to a tape, Networker will say the tape contains 200 Gig of
data. If I take the same 200 Gbyte of data and compress it down to, say,
100 Gbyte and then send the compressed data to the tape, Networker will say
the tape contains 100 Gig of data.
I'd like to know what the dip switches are, though. Send me the PDF at your
leisure.
--
Craig Ruefenacht
UNIX Systems Administrator
USANA Health Sciences, Inc.
http://www.usanahealthsciences.com
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ed Ortiz [SMTP:Edward_Ortiz AT SSA-SA.SEL.SONY DOT COM]
> Sent: Wednesday, September 10, 2003 12:41 PM
> To: NETWORKER AT LISTMAIL.TEMPLE DOT EDU
> Subject: Re: [Networker] If you use AIT-2 media in AIT-3 drives....
>
> Craig, I've been using AIT-2 tapes in my AIT-3 drive equipped jukebox as
> well. I have a Cybernetics CY-TL8-2015 Jukebox which is basically a
> Spectralogic 2K jukebox. I only use AIT-2 tapes to provide compatibility
> with an existing AIT-2 jukebox. I get anywhere from 45 GB-165 GB per tape
> depending on the kind of data I'm backing up. I'm using the hardware
> compression on the tape drive and only use Sony tapes. The Networker
> server is Solaris 2.6, Networker v6.0.3. Are the DIP switches on the
> tape drive set for HP-UX? When I first received my unit I had to change
> the DIP switch settings for Solaris. It had something to do with variable
> block size and compression settings. If you want I can send you
> documentation in PDF format describing the DIP switches on the drive.
>
> Ed Ortiz
>
> >>> Craig.Ruefenacht AT US.USANA DOT COM 9/10/03 12:50:34 PM >>>
> Hi everyone,
>
> This message is for anyone using AIT-2 media in AIT-3 tape drives.
>
> We are currently using AIT-2 media in AIT-3 tape drives on a SpectraLogic
> 64000. Why we don't use AIT-3 media in our AIT-3 drives is a mystery to
> me
> (the configuration was purchased and installed before I got here).
>
> Our Networker server is HP-UX 11i, Networker 6.1.3 Network Edition. Our
> AIT-3 tape drives do not use hardware compression. Any compression we do
> is
> done in software via Networker. We have two tape pools. Our UNIX clients
> go onto one tape pool and our Novell/Windows clients go onto the second
> tape
> pool. Over the past 8 months since I've been here, the average amount of
> data written to the AIT-2 tapes using AIT-3 drives are as follows:
>
> Unix tape pool: 40 Gbyte
> Novell/Windows tape pool: 28.5 Gbyte
>
> AIT-2 tape capacity is supposed to be 50 Gbyte.....
>
> Some of our tapes would achieve 49 Gbyte used capacity, but as the above
> averages show, many tapes didn't store much.
>
> Three months ago we purchased some certified AIT-2 media from SpectraLogic
> and started using it. There was one tape that was completely unusable and
> so we got it replaced. Three other of the tapes were unable to hold more
> than about 1 Gbyte of data. Networker's logs would show entries like
> this:
>
> -------------------
> 07/27/03 23:12:23 nsrd: media warning: verification of volume "C75738",
> volid 612632065 failed, read open error, No such device or
> address
> 07/27/03 23:12:23 nsrd: media notice: verification of volume "C75738",
> volid
> 612632065 failed, volume is being marked as full.
> 07/27/03 23:12:23 nsrd: media notice: Save set (614482433)
> slc-corp-s1:<1>VOL1: volume C75738 on /dev/rmt/c8t1d0BESTnb is being te
> rminated because: Media verification failed
> -------------------
>
> I did a little research on AIT-2/AIT-3 drives and media, and all the stuff
> I
> was able to find said that AIT-3 drives were backwards compatible with
> AIT-2
> media and there shouldn't be any problem using AIT-2 media in AIT-3
> drives.
> A tech note on SpectraLogic's web site said that although Sony stood by
> this
> claim, some clients of SpectraLogic were experiencing problems with AIT-2
> media in AIT-3 drives, and SpectraLogic was recommended that all their
> clients using AIT-2 media in AIT-3 drives to migrate to AIT-3 media.
>
> So I inquired SpectraLogic about this whole thing, and the tech support
> person who got back with me said that Sony had released a firmware upgrade
> for the AIT-3 drives that should resolve many of the problems that people
> have been experiencing when using AIT-2 media in AIT-3 drives, and could
> fix
> our problem(s) as well.
>
> SpectraLogic sent me the firmware update tape, I updated our AIT-3 drives
> to
> the new firmware, and in the 3 weeks since, every single tape in both tape
> pools have achieved 49 Gbyte capacity, without any problems. I've yet to
> see any of our AIT-2 tapes show a 50 Gbyte used capacity, but 49 Gbyte is
> close enough for me.
>
> Our AIT-3 tape drives were running on firmware version 0101.0034. The
> firmware we upgraded to is version 0201_CY15
>
> If anyone is using AIT-2 media with AIT-3 tape drives, I recommend that
> you
> contact your hardware vendor and inquire about a firmware upgrade to your
> AIT-3 tape drives, especially if you are seeing capacity problems or "no
> such device or address" errors. I don't suspect that many people fit this
> profile, but if you do, I thought I'd pass along the stuff we found out.
>
> --
> Craig Ruefenacht
> UNIX Systems Administrator
> USANA Health Sciences, Inc.
> http://www.usanahealthsciences.com
>
>
>
> --
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>
> --
> Note: To sign off this list, send a "signoff networker" command via email
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Note: To sign off this list, send a "signoff networker" command via email
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