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Yes that DAT160 is absolutely ripe for replacement.
Moving to a VTL would be awesome, a SPHiNX for example or other. That
will attach with Fiber and you can pick up a FC #5774 for cheap for the
E4A. The VTL would then work on a Power7, Power8, or Power9 system.
The 5774 is 4GB but who cares you couldn't push that to any kinda limit
with an E4A no way. It's cheap too.
You could save a few bucks with a SAS attachment. FC #5901 will do for
that. Check your VTL vendor though, some don't do SAS. (SPHiNX Does)
For either of those you will need an open PCIe slot in the CEC. You
cannot hook up SCSI tape to your E4A unless you have HSL drawers and if
you have those you are stuck i 7.1.
Or instead of the VTL one step 'not as nice' would be a TS2900 (1U) or
TS3100 (2U) Library. Sled in the drive desired LTO5 is kinda the sweet
spot now in cost and tape price and good speed. Best if you intend to
keep for a new system. LTO4 is cheaper but you may want newer than that
going forward to a Power9. Either will vastly out-run your E4A.
Less money still would be a standalone single tape LTO drive. Options
out there for LTO4 and LTO5 and likely not so expensive. Will also then
work on your new machine. These would be SAS attached. Some sit on a
shelf while others go into a media drawer that is 1U Rack mounted.
Soon as you pick and acquire, DUP all your DAT160 tapes to the new
format. Do It Now. Trusting the DAT160 is bad and it will not work on
any new system so get those tapes migrated.
- Larry "DrFranken" Bolhuis
www.Frankeni.com
www.iDevCloud.com - Personal Development IBM i timeshare service.
www.iInTheCloud.com - Commercial IBM i Cloud Hosting.
On 12/18/2017 12:02 PM, James H. H. Lampert wrote:
With a worn out DAT160 backup tape on our production box, I went looking
for replacement media.
And I discovered that DAT160 is considered an obsolete format, with
availability limited to stock on hand.
Given that we have a rack-mountable E4A, with a DAT160 drive for backup,
can anybody suggest any long-term options?
--
JHHL
midrange.com
