The Product:
I agree, the unit seems nice. As for the noise, it's not nearly as loud as the
Compaq TL895 I used to have ;-) so I'm happy there. I had encountered 1 DOA
tape unit (out of 6) and then a week later another one failed (LTO-2). It was
quite a nuisance also, since it failed over the weekend which is our only
backup window. But for the last week, so far so good. I had some issues with
the 39160 cards and the library though. I installed the cards with the
included CD and drivers and while everything was okay, the tech told me there
was an issue with the cards, LTO-2 and that driver version and I had to turn
down the bus speed in the scsi bios to 80MB/S instead of the 160. Fine,
whatever. I called Adaptec and they gave me the "latest and greatest" and of
course it blue screened my machine (Win2K SP4). After a few days of
frustration, and a case call to Adaptec, I have the new "latest" driver and it
works fine with the bus speeds back up to 160. I am now seeing the promised
speeds of between 25 and 40MB/S native.
Support:
The engineers that came to install it seemed like this was the first time they
saw one. First off, the unit arrived without a technician to unpack it from
the crate and our dock doors were 3 inches smaller than the unit on the pallet.
Needless to say, it took me 2 hours to get approval to get if off the pallet
so I can bring it into our office without voiding the warranty. Frustrating,
but I digress ;-)
The techs were very nice but I thought they would be more knowledgeable. They
were very diligent and not only had 3 techs here onsite but were in constant
communications with the engineers in Redmond and Denver to solve the issue. I
just thought they should know more of the ins and outs of the box and the OS's
they are attaching them to.
Sales:
This was also my first experience with ADIC and it was quite pleasant. The
sales people were knowledgeable about the system and weren't throwing tech
specs in my face or calling me every 2 hours but they answered my questions in
a timely fashion or got me a response from an engineer when I needed one on the
weekend. The only thing I had issues with was the 220V 30A power requirements
which we weren't made aware of when the engineer was here and told where the
library would be located. Not a big deal to get an electrician to run a new
outlet but it could have been installed before the unit arrived.
There are some things I find annoying.
1. When closing the door, the unit does an automatic inventory. But the
inventory on the GUI takes 5-10 minutes to be updated.
2. There are 3 buttons on the GUI that show you the exact same info. The
Cooling button is quite annoying. It would be nice if it would give details to
library/fan/drive temps or something. But it gives you the System Status which
only tells you about robotic movements and info related to the robot or the
drives.
Overall, I really like it so far. My throughput has been fantastic which has
allowed me to stop babysitting the jobs, tapes and drives. Some of the
features I thought were good for me were...
1. Not only did they give us the expansion module, but they also gave us an
additional slots to use at no additional charge. (luckily, we had enough space
for it)
2. It's Quiet (compared to my old library) and fast.
3. Notifications from the GUI about drive status or library status (came in
handy when the drive failed on a Saturday night) and can display and email
events or stats.
4. The virtual partitioning of the drives and slots.
I hope this helps others one way or the other if they are looking into new
libraries.
Regards,
Phil McDougal
-----Original Message-----
From: Willeat, Todd [mailto:TWilleat AT MHP.SMHS DOT COM]
Sent: Wednesday, August 20, 2003 5:55 PM
To: NETWORKER AT LISTMAIL.TEMPLE DOT EDU
Subject: Re: [Networker] Anyone using an ADIC Scalar i2000
OK, I've had my i2000 for a week now, so here are my thoughts...
The Product:
So far, the library seems nice. I really like the interface and the remote
console software looks exactly like the touchscreen. The robotics seem
pretty quick and have worked perfectly so far. However, its pretty loud when
it grabs a tape. According to the engineer that installed it, that's just
the clips locking onto the tape and is normal. Since this is my first
experience with LTO-2, I'll have to trust him... The only other problem I've
had was a drive/drive-sled that went bad after 3 days (Friday night, of
course). Unfortunately, this basically locked up my entire Fibre Channel
bus, preventing access to everything. Once it was replaced, everything
worked normally again.
Support:
The engineers that installed it seemed fairly knowledgable and got it
working pretty quickly. The engineers that replaced the drive took much
longer than I would expect (2hrs?!?), but I think they wanted to test (and
learn) everything since its still new to them. They did not have a drive
available in St. Louis, so an engineer from Kansas City got one there and
drove over 200 miles to St. Louis to replace it. I also got a call from an
engineer in Minneapolis that was going to fly to St. Louis to replace it. I
let him know that someone was coming from KC and he said he would call the
KC engineer to see which one (or both ??) of them would be coming. I guess
this is why support contracts cost so much...
Sales:
This was my first ADIC purchase, so I hope this isn't the norm for them. The
library didn't ship until over a month after it was supposed to. They kept
asking if they could ship early, but without the I/O blade. I told them that
was fine as long as they brought the I/O blade for the installation. Then
they told me that waiting for the I/O blade to be installed before shipping
would be faster. In talking with the pre-sales engineer, I found that
redundant power was an option. After a couple days, they finally agreed to
give us the redundant power at no charge since they "did not make it clear
that it was an option" (i.e. - all they ever mentioned was 2N power -
BEWARE!). Of course, when we received the library, the redundant power was
NOT included. They ended up overnighting it to us...
Hopefully this is helpful to you...
-----Original Message-----
From: Rodriguez, Jane [mailto:JRodriguez AT verisign DOT com]
Sent: Thursday, July 03, 2003 4:14 PM
To: 'Legato NetWorker discussion'; Willeat, Todd
Subject: RE: [Networker] Anyone using an ADIC Scalar i2000
Please keep us posted on your success. I too am looking at the i2000 and
the SpectraLogic's Gator 64K. I haven't made up my mind yet but I am
leaning towards the i2000 because I can run it with two different drive
types, thereby moving to new media less painfully.
-----Original Message-----
From: Willeat, Todd [mailto:TWilleat AT MHP.SMHS DOT COM]
Sent: Wednesday, July 02, 2003 7:53 AM
To: NETWORKER AT LISTMAIL.TEMPLE DOT EDU
Subject: Re: [Networker] Anyone using an ADIC Scalar i2000
We just ordered a Scalar i2000 and should have it running in a few weeks. We
compared it to IBM's 3584, STK's L700e, and SpectraLogic's Gator 64K. The
built-in intelligence and monitoring is what put it over the top for us...
-----Original Message-----
From: McDougal, Philip H [mailto:PMcDougal AT JENNER DOT COM]
Sent: Wednesday, July 02, 2003 9:07 AM
To: NETWORKER AT LISTMAIL.TEMPLE DOT EDU
Subject: [Networker] Anyone using an ADIC Scalar i2000
Hello all!
I have recently 'extorted' some funds from the budget for a new tape
library. I have been looking at the Adic Scalar i2000. Of course, sales
reps and Adic engineers are always biased, so I thought I'd see if anyone on
this list might have some experience with one (pros/cons). I've also been
looking at HP's ESL9322. Does anyone have a preference to either one of the
above mentioned libraries.
Thanks in advance for any input or advice.
Regards,
Philip McDougal II
Data Center x6275
Work: 1-312-222-9350 x3276
Cell: 1-312-622-4832
Pager: 1-877-803-2940
Email pmcdougal AT jenner DOT com
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