davina wrote:
> Stan Horwitz wrote:
> 
> > Greetings everyone;
> > 
> > What are my options for tracking LTO-3 tape media? We are sending more and
> > more LTO-3 tapes off-site. Some of our tapes site in off-site storage, some
> > in a closet next to our tape library, and of course, a good deal of the
> > tapes site in our tape library.
> > 
> > Keeping track of our tape cartridges is getting to be a real challenge. We
> > need a good inventory tracking system here, but so far, the only off-the
> > shelf product I found via googling seems to have gone defunct. I have set up
> > a pretty good manual system, but it definitely has to be temporary because I
> > will never get management to agree to let our operators handle the procedure
> > on an ongoing basis.
> > 
> >   -----snip-----
> > 
> > 
> 
> Alphastor can do this. This is one of the things it was originally
> designed to do, and of course later they added the library management
> functionality from SmartMedia. I don't have first hand experience of
> this, so can't recommend it other than when I saw a presentation on it
> some years ago it looked pretty good. I am sure other similar products
> exist.


I've had AlphaStor on my L700 about five years now, for mixed DLT/LTO media 
support.  We're planning to toss it with the pending upgrade to 7.4.x, mostly 
due to it being EOL'd within the next couple years.  Its cost is also very high 
- nearly the same as our Tier 5 DBO.

If most of your tapes are going to a specific vendor (ours is Iron Mountain) 
ask them about tracking options.  We use their website's reports and other 
features.

--TSK

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