*** Before acting on this e-mail or opening any attachment you are advised to read the disclaimer at the end of this e-mail ***

Whilst it's not here yet, decision making should allow for O-MASS technology that should be out (first generation) in 2003. This is a step change that I've been waiting about 18 months for * tape is much shorter therefore read times much faster * silicon head gives much closer tracks (and is less susceptible to alignment errors due to heat expansion) * tape is native 600GB capacity * 64MB per second transfer * third generation product is predicted at 2.4TB per tape, and 256MB per second <g>

Obviously still to get here, but if (like me) you have a large DLT platform and were thinking of using SDLT as a compatible upgrade, it might be worth hanging on with DLT8000 drives, and change to O-MASS in a year or two.

Have a look here: http://www.tandberg.com/o-mass/

Peter

-----Original Message----- From: Ben Rockwood [mailto:BRockwood@homestead-inc.com] Sent: 25 April 2002 22:53 To: Jeff Kennedy; dwald@kersey.yi.org Cc: toasters@mathworks.com Subject: RE: Tape drive recommendations

I can't resist to step in here. The battle of the tape format is continuing day by day. Many vendors are pushing people away from current DLT technology saying it's doomed, and that AIT isn't far behind. The big pushes are on LTO's and newer drives. I've had my eye on StorageTek for awhile now because they are doing some really neat things, namely FC to the drive in their T9840B drive. The T9940's are nice two with 60G native and 120G 2:1 compressed. But then it all comes down to your stratagy. If you have a small enviroment and you only want to back up, say 1-2TB, then you might like some of the 20slot AIT2/3 arrays from ADIC. SDLT is looking good with native capacities for 110G and higher with compression plus descent speed, however a key factor between DLT and AIT right now is also physical size. If you have a cramped facility you may not have adiquate room for DLT robots, which is where the nice and tiny AITs are handy.

There are alot of choices. Currently I'm still liking LTO because it has 15MB/sec sustained rates per drive plus a 100G native capacity, but right now it probly comes down to cost more than anything. In which case, if you buy a robot, buy bigger than you need to so you can scale later.

As for which is best specifically for a Filer, I know that you supposedly can put a robot directly onto a head, but I haven't seen anyone do it, and probly would opt to use a seperate gig-network with a dedicated backup server and anything I wanted on the back end of it.

Maybe that helps. I hope.

Ben Rockwood

-----Original Message----- From: Jeff Kennedy [mailto:jlkennedy@amcc.com] Sent: Thu 4/25/2002 6:26 AM To: dwald@kersey.yi.org Cc: toasters@mathworks.com Subject: Re: Tape drive recommendations Here are my thoughts:

AIT: pros: Great product, nice access time due to the embedded chip, best choice for nearline tape storage, small footprint cons: only media supplier is Sony, the rest are just re-sellers (chances are they aren't going anywhere but you never know)

SDLT: pros: Long track record, can read older DLT media (if BRC drive), supported by everyone cons: potential for mixing media

LTO: not a big fan of LTO, thought it would be great in the beginning but the "unified format" fractured long before I thought it would.

~JK

dwald@kersey.yi.org wrote:

Hi all.

We've been using DLT7000 drives off the back of our 740's for some time now, and are looking to upgrade.

According to the NOW site, NetApps supports the SuperDL220, AIT-3 and some of the LTO's, among others.

Capacity and throughput are somewhat close across the three types, I'm curious for any thoughts on which is preferred? Any horror stories on any of these with Filers?

Thanks