When I first started using LTO, I was curious about the lifespan. I spoke
to an IBM'er in the storage division about it. I can't recall exactly but
the lifespan was astonishing.
Just Google LTO tape lifespan and you'll get a tone of hits. Here is an
excerpt from the durability rating of one:
"1,000,000 passes on any area of tape, equates to over 20,000 end to end
passes/260 full tape backups"
-----Original Message-----
From: pctech-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:pctech-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Jeff Crosby
Sent: Thursday, July 11, 2013 6:05 AM
To: PC Technical Discussion for iSeries Users
Subject: [PCTECH] When to replace LTO4 tapes
Wanted to pick everyone's brain.
Our Windows servers get backed up to an HP LTO4 SCSI tape drive. Last night
it failed with the software saying the tape had media errors and don't you
ever ever ever use that tape again. I put a new tape into service and am
running that backup now.
There are 10 LTO4 tapes for this backup. Each has used once every other
week for approximately 4 years now. I can replace them at $25 apiece.
Should I? Should these tapes last longer? How do I know in a Windows
environment that it's time to replace a tape? If it's time, I may as well
do all 10 at once.
Our System i tapes have been in use longer than 4 years without issue. But
I get a report every Friday morning on the System i that will tell me tape
errors. There never are any, so I keep using the same tapes.
Thanks.
--
Jeff Crosby
VP Information Systems
UniPro FoodService/Dilgard
P.O. Box 13369
Ft. Wayne, IN 46868-3369
260-422-7531
www.dilgardfoods.com
The opinions expressed are my own and not necessarily the opinion of my
company. Unless I say so.
--
This is the PC Technical Discussion for IBM i (AS/400 and iSeries) Users
(PcTech) mailing list To post a message email: PcTech@xxxxxxxxxxxx To
subscribe, unsubscribe, or change list options,
visit:
http://lists.midrange.com/mailman/listinfo/pctech
or email: PcTech-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Before posting, please take a moment to review the archives at
http://archive.midrange.com/pctech.
midrange.com
