My original question:
> This is not directly Sun-related, although there may be Sun-particular
> information that some of you out there may have.
>
> Does anyone have any experience with Sony's AIT drive? We are
> particularly concerned about the durability and longevity of the tapes
> since they are so expensive compared with our current (low capacity)
> backup system, but, I am interested in hearing what anyone has to say
> about it -- good or bad.
>
> How about any Sun-specific information? We will be putting this on a
> SS1000. Is there any reason for concern here?
Thanks to all who replied (following).
------- start of digest (3 messages) -------
From: js@cctechnol.com (Johnie Stafford)
To: "Mark 'Hex' Hershberger" <mah@eecs.tulane.edu>
Subject: Re: Experience with AIT
We've got a pair of them in a Qualstar 4220 library. I have nothing
but good things to say about them. I've had them since August and have
not had any troubles with them at all. As far as cost, the price per
gig of capacity really isn't that much more if you were using data
grade tapes in your lower capacity system. And in our case where we
were using video grade tapes in our 8505s the cost really isn't that
much more and when you factor in the reduction in personnel cost
associated with the much slower 8505s it is probably cheaper for us to
use the AIT.
As far as Sun-specific concerns, you will have to add an entry in
/kernel/drv/st.conf for them, but other than that they work find out
of the box.
------------------------------
From: <brw@jazz.njit.edu>
To: "Mark 'Hex' Hershberger" <mah@eecs.tulane.edu>
Subject: Re: Experience with AIT
According to our local Sun sales office, Sun has no plans for official
support; as standard SCSI devices they should work OK, per the same folks...
Brian
------------------------------
From: Rick Hernandez <rick@eiq.com>
To: "Mark 'Hex' Hershberger" <mah@eecs.tulane.edu>
Subject: Re: Experience with AIT
Mark,
We are using the AIT drives in a Spectralogic 10000 Jukebox on a
Sparc5/sol.2.5.1. So far, so good. We decided to upgrade from a DLT tape
unit to the Sony drives. The media is about the same price, and the AIT
have a higher capacity. Also, the AIT drives do NOT require cleaning,
and are suppose to last longer. Future plans for the AIT include
capacities of over 100GB/tape. You can get detailed info from any tape
library vendor.
------- end -------
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Fri Sep 28 2001 - 23:12:33 CDT