At 08:23 AM 8/12/02 , marc.levitan AT PFPC DOT COM wrote:

I have been using a DLT Drive to back up the database.  This requires
frequent changing of tapes throughout the night. We are losing the staff
that usually changes the tapes.

I am looking to find a solution such as a tape changer that would automate
the tape changes. Does anyone have experience with this kind of hardware?

A lot of jukebox (umm... sorry, "autochangers") can be configured to treat
the entire contents of the library as a single, massive tape.

For example, the ADIC FastStor, a 7 slot library with a single DLT can be
set up such that when one tape reaches end-of-media it changes to the
"next" tape and continues.  That can get you close to a half terabyte of
backup without special software or human intervention.

If you =want= special software to manipulate the changer, I have used
"chio", which is part of the FreeBSD and NetBSD distributions.  There is
also "mtx", a bit more full featured and available in the FreeBSD ports
collection.  I've also built it under Solaris 2.6, and could provide you an
installable package.

Several of the tape stackers can do this as well.


        -crl
--
Chad R. Larson (CRL22)    chad AT eldocomp DOT com
  Eldorado Computing, Inc.   602-604-3100
     5353 North 16th Street, Suite 400
       Phoenix, Arizona   85016-3228

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