Jamie; The Powervaults are small, and once upon a time, we had some trouble with one we had. There was some mechanical part that had to be replaced and after that it worked fine.
The design of the Powervault is a bit bizarre. Remember the PowerEdge 4x00's? It's got that same "tubular box" shape, which really isn't a very good shape for working with. It severely limited the number of tapes the Powervaults could handle, and there's no expansion of the unit (tape capacity) once you buy it. If I remember correctly, you get 4 or 5 tapes plus a cleaning tape and you're done.
Also note: the powervault does not have any barcode read capability. There may have been a version somewhere that did, but I never saw one.
Check up on support: we got rid of ours over a year ago, but if you can buy support, they might not be too bad.
If you can get a StorageTek L20, that's going to be a better unit for you. I saw one on ebay two weeks ago with an LTO tape drive installed for about $5k. StorageTek support is expensive, but their products and service are excellent. The L20's have barcode reading capability built in.
JKB
-----Original Message----- From: owner-toasters@mathworks.com [mailto:owner-toasters@mathworks.com] On Behalf Of Rogers, Jamie Sent: Friday, August 27, 2004 4:50 PM To: 'toasters@mathworks.com' Subject: Tape Devices and Backups.
I am outgrowing my existing DLT autoloader which is connected to a sun workstation from which I rsh to do my dumps. I am considering purchasing either new or used an LTO. I'm running ONTAP 6.3.1 om my 760, I presently only have 1TB raw but expect that to increase in the near future. Cost is an issue, I am on a very tight budget so used equipment is pretty much my only option. Has anyone used a Dell powervault LTO with their filers or via rsh? Any other suggestions? I see a lot of these on ebay and I'm wondering why?
Thanks, Jamie