Is Tape Library the right solution?

[grob115]

Hi, sorry I'm completely new to tape but I'm looking for a solution for moving old e-mails off a server to cheaper storage than disk and someone asked me to look at TSM. Have the following questions in mind and if someone can give me some info that'd be much appreciated. Thanks.

1. Is it true that I can set up such that contents of files older than a specified date to be moved to the TSM, and still leaving the empty file on the disk so when it's used again, TSM can automatically load from tape and restore to disk?
2. How much would a solution that can scale up to 1PB costs inclusive of tapes? I looked at IBM's site and it appears the 3576 model L5B can add up to four E9U expansion for this purpose. So how much would a starter 356 model costs with all tapes?
3. The 3576 model L5B has a stated Maximum LTO Ultrium storage slots = 41. Does this mean it can hold up to 41 LTO-6 tapes for a total uncompressed capacity of 102.5TB?
4. Are there any cheaper alternatives for me?

Thanks!!

 

[marclant]

Is it true that I can set up such that contents of files older than a specified date to be moved to the TSM, and still leaving the empty file on the disk so when it's used again, TSM can automatically load from tape and restore to disk?

Only if you use HSM and that would apply to files, not email. There are 3rd party product that do email too and store it to TSM.

How much would a solution that can scale up to 1PB costs inclusive of tapes? I looked at IBM's site and it appears the 3576 model L5B can add up to four E9U expansion for this purpose. So how much would a starter 356 model costs with all tapes?

Reach out to your IBM sales rep for that.

The 3576 model L5B has a stated Maximum LTO Ultrium storage slots = 41. Does this mean it can hold up to 41 LTO-6 tapes for a total uncompressed capacity of 102.5TB?

Yes. However with some libraries you have to sacrifice slots when adding more tape drives. Not familiar with this library, so I don't know if this is the case. You should be able to find that in the literature or your sales rep.