How to upgrade our 2/20 Library

[Mike Fisher_3]

We are condidering upgrading our SureStore 2/20 from DLT to SDLT

1] What's SDLT?

2] Can we take the DLT drives out of the 2/20 library & put in SDLT drives instead?

3a] If "yes". What's the drive part #?

3b] If "No". Can you suggest a suitable library?

Thank you
Mike

[Kurt Beyers. · Accepted solution]

SLDT is the follow-up of DLT with a higher capacity (up to 260 GB of compressed data)

No you cannot upgrade to SDLT. Have a look at http://www.hp.com/products1/storage/products/automatedbackup/midrange/220series_tape/index.html for the possible upgrade kits. You can upgrade to LTO drives. They have a higher capacity as well (up to 200 GB for the first generation and up to 400 GB for the second generation of Ultrium, which appeared quit recently on the market). A LTO is also faster and more reliable than SDLT.

The drive part number for a HP Surestore Ultrium Tape Drive HVDS is A6306A and for a HP Surestore E Ultrium Tape Drive LVDS is A6307A.

I wlud go for the LTO upgrade path.

Regards,
Kurt

[Mike Fisher_3]

Just what I needed
Thanks Kurt

[Vincent Farrugia]

Hello,

While Ultrium is great (I'm personally a fan of it), the only drawback using it is that it is not backward-compatible to DLT technology. SDLT, on the other hand, is. So you could still use your old tapes in SDLT drives, but not in Ultrium drives.

Unfortunately, the 2/20 libraries can only hold DLT8000, Ultrium or DLT1 drives, as already stated.

Differences between SDLT and Ultrium:

SDLT speed => 11Mb/s
Ultrium speed => 15Mb/s

SDLT capacity => 220Gb or 320Gb
Ultrium capacity => 200Gb

You cannot use the 400Gb generation 2 Ultrium in the 2/20 library.

If you want a SDLT library, you can have the MSL5026SL library. Take a look at the new libraries available from Compaq:

http://h18006.www1.hp.com/products/storageworks/msl5026/index.html

HTH,
Vince

[Mike Fisher_3]

Vincent
Malta rules

[Brian M Rawlings]

One minor correction:

SDLT220 is 11MB/s, but SDLT320 is 16MB/s (native), slightly faster than LTO/Ultium's 15MB/s. Ultium II (or whatever they're calling it) will be out very soon, and will be king of the hill when announced (unless you count SuperAIT, new out from Sony...)

The DLT numbering scheme has always been based on 2:1 compression (whether you get that or not is another question):

DLT4000 = 20GB per cartridge (native), 40GB at 2:1
DLT7000 = 35GB per cartridge (native), 70GB at 2:1
DLT8000 = 40GB per cartridge (native), 80GB at 2:1
SDLT220 = 110GB per cartridge (native), 220GB at 2:1
SDLT320 = 160GB per cartridge (native), 320GB at 2:1

Regards, --bmr