George our experience here has been:
Avoid IBM for your tech support like the plague!
Go to your Library Manufacturer for support. The high dollar item is the
Drives not the library but I believe the responsible entity would be
your library manufacturer who sold the IBM components as an upgrade.
(That is how it worked with ADIC (now Quantum).
We (AFRPA) had a horrible time getting the IBM LTO-2 Drives working in
our ADIC; "BUT" ADIC Tech Support was GREAT not just good but GREAT and
once we got the drives working with the proper drivers for the drive
they are almost bullet proof!
By the way, when we started this whole thing with ADIC 2 years ago, they
TOLD US the exact same thing using the same phrase. "IBM drives are
flaky to get them to settle in but once they are working they are bullet
proof."
My experience mentioned here was IBM LTO-2 drives in an ADIC SCALAR 100
Library SCSI attached to Windows 2003 SP# server. So your mileage may
vary.
2 Days left and two more job offers this morning woo-hoo, they love
me...they really love me! <Grin>
Semper Fidelis et Paratus! /ALE
Eddie Albert, Enterprise Network Engineer
Air Force Real Property Agency
Cell: (703) 298-7737
> -----Original Message-----
> From: EMC NetWorker discussion
> [mailto:NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU] On Behalf Of George Sinclair
> Sent: Monday, January 29, 2007 1:36 PM
> To: NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU
> Subject: [Networker] IBM versus Quantum versus HP LTO-3?
>
> Can anyone recommend which drive manufacturer to use for
> LTO-3 (HP, IBM or Quantum (Certance)?
> Does anyone overtly not recommend IBM or had bad experiences
> with these?
>
> We have NW 7.2.2 running on a Linux RH storage node with a
> Storagetek L80 tape library, currently running older Seagate
> LTO-1 drives. STK shipped us four IBM LTO-3 drives for our
> LTO-3 upgrade (same tape library).
>
> I can't get any technical support from IBM since the
> equipment is not under contract with IBM.
> I've been unable to locate an online manual for these drives.
> I searched through IBM's site and elsewhere and could not
> find anything that discusses any specifics regarding these
> drives in regards to keyword values for Linux stinit.def
> entries like timeout, long-timeout, etc. Legato's
> documentation specifically states that Linux uses stinit.def,
> and their hardware compatibility guide suggests using the
> Linux st driver as this has been tested.
>
> I found some information at Quantum's site and one other
> st_conf.c document pertaining to Sun, and these seem to
> corroborate that the density code would be 0x44 for LTO-3,
> 0x42 for LTO-2, etc. but nothing about the various keyword
> values or timeout values.
>
> Legato's documentation is very limited. The only place I
> could find a sample stinit.def was under the Linux
> installation guide (pdf), but this doesn't even include LTO,
> and mentions that the compatibility guides contain stinit
> information, but I couldn't find anything under there related
> to stinit.def. The Linux installation guide suggests that you
> "...refer to the tape device manufacturer's requirements for
> the specific device and model being used."
>
> Was wondering if we should request that STK take these drives
> back and replace them with HP? My main concern is not being
> able to get the support for these drives in terms of the
> stinit.def entries, etc., but if there are other reasons that
> we should NOT consider using IBM drives, I'd be curious to know.
>
> STK didn't seem to know much about stinit.def and mentioned
> that it's not needed, but I'm doubtful on that.
>
> If anyone is using IBM LTO drives with Linux, I'd be
> interested to know what your stinit.def file looks like and any help.
>
> Thanks.
>
> George
>
> --
> George Sinclair - NOAA/NESDIS/National Oceanographic Data Center
> SSMC3 4th Floor Rm 4145 | Voice: (301) 713-3284 x210
> 1315 East West Highway | Fax: (301) 713-3301
> Silver Spring, MD 20910-3282 | Web Site: http://www.nodc.noaa.gov/
> - Any opinions expressed in this message are NOT those of the
> US Govt. -
>
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