Tape changer recommendation

[Ketrien I. Saihr-Kesenchedra]

At 11:06 AM 3/28/2004, you wrote:
>Hello!
>I'm looking for remote-controlled tape changer, of course, SCSI; size 
>about 20-40 Gbs.
>It should work fine with FreeBSD, the box will be on colocation, so 
>programm-controlled tape changing should also work fine.

I see Paul Boehmer recommended Overland, one of my personal favorites as 
well. If you can afford another 4U-5U of space, I would save some money and 
buy an ADIC DDS2 upgradable system. These work well with Bacula from what 
I've heard, and I have been most impressed. An ADIC Scalar will scale quite 
well, and is upgradable to DDS3. (Possibly DDS4 w/subboard replacement? I 
haven't inquired.) I've had very very good experiences with ADIC - unlike 
most other changers, the instance of barcode read errors is extremely low 
(<0.5% based on a sample of 5000 reads) and they have been very reliable.
Overland is most certainly comparable, but personally I'm not very keen on 
DLT due to the costs. An ADIC will probably cost you $2000 or so, best 
guesstimate. A ten pack of DDS3 120M tapes for $100. That's 200GB/400GB. A 
single DLT-IV cartridge typically costs between $85 and $110. (US Dollars, 
mind you.) ADIC does also have DLT, LTO, and AIT solutions I believe. (Not 
sure on AIT, I have seen DLT and LTO.)

-Ketrien I. Saihr-Kesenchedra <ketrien AT error404 DOT nls DOT net>
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