Sharing SCSI tape between two systems

I have an Internet and Extranet implementation that is located at a
collocation facility. When we change servers we are going from a single
i5/OS instance to two. Due to pricing it is actually easier for me to
acquire two 515's than one 525. Not that I'm interested in a debate
about pricing. However, the multiple 515's causes me some other issues.



In our primary data center we use a SAN and fibre attach our tape drives
to our systems. I was wanting to do the same with the 515's. However,
it has just come to my intention that I can't install the fibre adapter
in a 515. I don't know all the reasons why but for now I'm assuming
that rumor is correct. Now, I think I'm back at sharing an LTO drive
via a scsi interface. I really don't want to buy two drives but that is
something I'm reviewing. One system is production and the second is
test. Test system doesn't have the drive availability demands of the
production so I can share. However, given the remote nature of this
implementation I don't want to use a manual scsi switch. We used to use
that approach but it was a long time ago.



So, does anyone have any current experience with a vendor that will do
an A/B scsi switch between two System i's and one IBM LTO 4 drive? And
do they work with a switch that has some intelligence? If it gets to
expensive or complicated I probably go with one higher end LTO drive for
the production system and a simple single volume drive for test.



Michael Crump



Manager, Computing Services

Saint-Gobain Containers, Inc.

1509 S. Macedonia Ave.

Muncie, IN 47302

765.741.7696

765.741.7012 f


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