We have 3 Spectrlogic systems, and have had great success with them.  

We originally had 1 T950, as we had only 1 datacenter.   12 LTO-2 drives, and 
230 slots (combination of entry/exit and storage).   We have since 
replaced/upgraded that system to 10 LTO-3 drives and 380 slots. 

During Hurricane Katrina, we had to get a system quick, as our datacenter 
building was under 3 feet of water (data center was fine, as it is up several 
floors), and Bell South/At&t lost all data connections to the building.  

We bought a T120 with 6 LTO-2 drives (shipped within 2 days), and still use it 
today as a small backup server, with a handful of machines.  It is always the 
1st Networker to be upgraded, to see if there are going to be any problems.  

We also bought a T950 for our 2nd datacenter, and have been happy with it, as 
well.  If we bought something today, it would probably be one of the new models 
that are between the T120 and T950, but those weren't available when we bought 
the T950. 

In the 5 years of service, we have never had an outright failure (knock on 
wood), other than tape drives.   

On our large T950, we have the regular backup server, a storage node, and 7 
dedicated storage nodes connected.  Backups are a mixture of backup over fiber 
and backup over GE.  Our 4 Exchange servers, and 3 SQL servers backup over 
fiber.   All other backups are over GE.   That's why we have so many drives.  
We also use Dynamic Drive Sharing, so that all drives can be shared by the 
backup server, the "normal" storage node, and the 7 dedicated storage nodes.   
We backup over 2 TB of Exchange data in about 5 hours.   Between all Windows, 
SQL, and Exchange data, we backup about 6-7 TB a night.  

Let me know if you want any more specific information about Spectralogic.  I 
don't want to sound like a salesman, but they do have solid products.  

David M. Browning Jr.
IT Project Coordinator Enterprise Backups and Help Desk

 
-----Original Message-----
From: EMC NetWorker discussion [mailto:NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU] On 
Behalf Of Manel Rodero
Sent: Friday, February 20, 2009 5:47 AM
To: NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU
Subject: [Networker] Upgrade to LTO4 library, opinions about these libraries ?

Hello,

We're evaluating different offers por changing our old library (a
Qualstar TLS6460 with 60 slots/4 drives SDLT320) to a new LTO4 library
with FC interfaces.

Our initial idea is to connect the library (i.e. its 2 initial LTO4
drives) directly to the server using a dual channel HBA interface, but
we are evaluating the connection to our SAN too (for having some hosts
direct backup to the library like storage nodes).

We have different offers by our providers and we would like to hear your
opinions about these libraries (support, problems, evolution, etc.):

* SpectraLogic Spectra T120 (30 slots, 2xLTO4,
* Quantum Scalar i500 (41 slots, 2xLTO4, I/O magazine 6 slots)
* Dell PowerVault ML6010 (41 slots, 2xLTO4, I/O magazine 6 slots)
* Sun StorageTek SL500 (30 slots, 2xLTO4, CAP magazine 5 slots)

Thank you very much!

--

o o o  Manel Rodero Blánquez             | LCFIB - FIB - UPC
o o o  IT System Manager                 | Campus Nord - Modul B6
o o o  Barcelona School of Informatics   | Jordi Girona, 1-3
U P C  Technical University of Catalonia | 08034 Barcelona (Spain)
                                          |
        manel AT fib.upc DOT edu                 | Tel: +00 34 93 401 0847
        http://www.fib.upc.edu/           | Fax: +00 34 93 401 7040

To sign off this list, send email to listserv AT listserv.temple DOT edu and 
type "signoff networker" in the body of the email. Please write to 
networker-request AT listserv.temple DOT edu if you have any problems with this 
list. You can access the archives at 
http://listserv.temple.edu/archives/networker.html or
via RSS at http://listserv.temple.edu/cgi-bin/wa?RSS&L=NETWORKER

To sign off this list, send email to listserv AT listserv.temple DOT edu and 
type "signoff networker" in the body of the email. Please write to 
networker-request AT listserv.temple DOT edu if you have any problems with this 
list. You can access the archives at 
http://listserv.temple.edu/archives/networker.html or
via RSS at http://listserv.temple.edu/cgi-bin/wa?RSS&L=NETWORKER