RE: Backup media

Rob:

Given the 10% - 15% difference in acquisition costs I would always go with
Fibre (8GB to keep the cost down a bit and that still supports NPIV)

Used is fine, the only thing to consider is the warranty vs. maintenance on
a tape device is significant. Personally I self-maintain tape libraries and
drives since they usually need replacements when they fail, so I keep a
spare on hand. Then again on a mission critical system with production
depending on the tape, get maintenance.


--
Jim Oberholtzer
Agile Technology Architects


-----Original Message-----
From: MIDRANGE-L [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Rob
Berendt
Sent: Monday, December 18, 2017 12:49 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: RE: Backup media

Good thinking Jim.
Unload/reloads between systems with incompatible tape drives is always a
challenge. At best you can hope for is some friendly with every tape drive
known to man attached to their system to dup tapes for you. You can bet
that will be a serious delay in your upgrade. That and you have to time it
for when they aren't busy.

Is the ability to do SAS attachment pretty much a given with systems still?
If you had a choice between fiber tape and SAS tape which would you choose?
Me, fiber. But we have the switch and all which really helps. Not that it
should make a big diff to a single lpar, single drive in the library shop.
And James might already have the SAS capability.
Even if he later had to dump SAS there are used fiber LTO5's to be had so he
wouldn't obsolete his tapes.

There have been a lot of announcements about IBM pulling LTO5 drives from
the market but James doesn't strike me as someone reluctant to purchase on
the used market.


Rob Berendt
--
IBM Certified System Administrator - IBM i 6.1 Group Dekko Dept 1600 Mail
to: 2505 Dekko Drive
Garrett, IN 46738
Ship to: Dock 108
6928N 400E
Kendallville, IN 46755
http://www.dekko.com





From: "Jim Hawkins" <jhawkins@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: 12/18/2017 01:13 PM
Subject: RE: Backup media
Sent by: "MIDRANGE-L" <midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx>



Since that system is slated for end of hardware support in early 2019, and
cannot be upgraded to OS V7.3, I would want to find a tape drive that
would
be compatible with both this box and my shiny new Power 9 box I hope to
get
next year (Santa are you listening?) . Otherwise you are going to invoke
the spend money command for a tape drive now, and again for a tape drive
in
the next few months. Now, does such a drive exist? I don't know, but that
would be high on my criteria.

from: "James H. H. Lampert" <jamesl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
subject: Backup media

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