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Re: Anybody having experience with Dell TL2000 or TL4000 tape changer?
2007-09-20 15:08:11
I spent a bit of time searching for something specific to this and
haven't had much luck. DELL doesn't cater as much to the unix/linux
command line setup environment as some other vendors. They're more into
the wizards and such. Note that the original message said LT2000 or
LT4000 and it should have been TL. I changed that & searches worked
better. ;-)
Anyway, a couple of things:
DELL's user's manual (downloadable pdf) does say that support is
available for most major platforms and lists Windows, AIX, SUN, Linux,
and Netware.
SAS seems to be using SCSI commands over serial connections. FC seems to
do the same (use SCSI commands). MTX is a general SCSI controller for
tape libraries, robots, etc. and I found references on the Amanda list
saying they had successfully used MTX with FC connected libraries. So,
I'm presuming MTX would also work with SAS. However (caveat), I couldn't
specifically find a reference to MTX having been used with an SAS
library, and the compatibility list on the MTX site doesn't seem to be
exhaustive. For example, I use MTX and it doesn't list my library.
So, although it would be nice to have someone pipe up and say they had
this one working, I think the general answer to this type of question is
that if the library works with your operating system, it will work with
Amanda. DELL says it works with the operating system. To get from there
to here, you need the glue. It would seem that MTX and chg-zd-mtx would
be the glue.
So, can anyone confirm that MTX indeed works with SAS libraries? We
ought to have some general commentary on tape library support in the FAQ
on the wiki.
Note that: "The changer interface is external to AMANDA and
well-documented, so unsupported changers can be added without a lot of
effort." (from the wiki, and the details of the interface are also on
the wiki.)
---------------
Chris Hoogendyk
-
O__ ---- Systems Administrator
c/ /'_ --- Biology & Geology Departments
(*) \(*) -- 140 Morrill Science Center
~~~~~~~~~~ - University of Massachusetts, Amherst
<hoogendyk AT bio.umass DOT edu>
---------------
Erdös 4
JakeGrimmett wrote:
I'm also looking at buying some TL4000 units to use with Centos5 (~ RHEL5)
and need to know if I can use the SAS version.
A closer look at the documentation you provided, makes me think that these
are in fact re-badged IBM® System Storage TS3100/TS3200 units.
http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/storage/tape/ts3100/index.html
http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/storage/tape/ts3200/index.html
Has anyone tried these with AMANDA, or even, has anyone used a SAS
autoloader with AMANDA?
I'd hate to suddenly have to go to my Director and ask for extra cash for a
commercial backup solution, after using AMANDA for 5 years!
many thanks
Jake
Jon LaBadie wrote:
On Wed, Aug 01, 2007 at 10:22:42AM +0200, Cyrille Bollu wrote:
Thanks for the whole story Jon.
Do you see something I should take care of before buying one of these 2
tape library?
Here are some documentation about these:
http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/pvaul_tl2000?c=uk&cs=RC1077915&s=pub&~tab=specstab
http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/pvaul_tl4000?c=uk&cs=RC1077915&s=pub&~tab=specstab
http://support.euro.dell.com/support/edocs/stor%2Dsys/tl2k4k/en/ug/ug_en.pdf
One is twice the size of the other (drive and tape capacity and price :),
so I wouldn't have thought they would be considered for the same purchase.
In the 2003 survey only one library/drive out of forty one
was a Dell. Don't know if the more recent survey listed makes.
I've not used Dell tape equipment. I've heard neither bad comment,
nor strong endorsement for it. Maybe others will offer opinions.
When I attempted to buy a used Dell LTO library from eBay,
it was apparent that it would be tough to get a great deal.
Too many people wanted the same items so the prices were
not as low as I was willing to bid. Could indicate quality
is high or demand is high for other reasons.
--
Jon H. LaBadie jon AT jgcomp DOT com
JG Computing
4455 Province Line Road (609) 252-0159
Princeton, NJ 08540-4322 (609) 683-7220 (fax)
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