Product Selection 1/8 vs 1/9

[Karthik S S]

Hi,

Required inputs on field failure rates and performance on the following products,

HP autoloader Dlt 1/8 vs dlt 1/9
or
HP autoloader Ultrium 1/8 vs Ultrium 1/9

Which is better product to opt for? Your quick response is appriciated,
Thanks,
Karthik

[Vincent Farrugia]

Hello,

The 1/8 series of autoloaders hold only the vs80 drives and, very recently, the Ultrium drives. Ultrium 1/8 are so new that there are not any failure rates at the moment. vs80 drives are NOT DLT8000 drives... they use the same media but are half as fast (literally). They use DLT1 technology.

1/9 autoloaders can hold DLT1, Ultrium or DLT8000 drives. They have 9 cartridge slots, as oppposed to 8 for the 1/8 series.

HTH,
Vince

[Karthik S S]

Hi,

I have noticed that 1/8 have complex robotics while comparing to 1/9 [ 1/8 horizontal robotics , 1/9 vertical robotics... ] info reqd on performance and field failure rate like tape get stuck ... etc.

Karthik

[Leif Halvarsson_2]

Hi

DLT vs80 6MB/s 80GB capacity (compressed) 200 000h MTBF
DLT8000 12MB/s 80GB capacity (compressed) 250 000h MTBF
Ultrium 30MB/s 200GB capacity (compressed)
I can't find the MTBF for Ultrium but I think it is at least as good as DLT8000.

If you don't need the capacity and performance of the Ultrium drive I would recommend vs80 (and the 1/8). If this is not enough, look at the Ultrium. There is not much price difference between Ultrium and DLT8000 drives and DLT8000 is a old tecnology (and far less performance).

1/8 or 1/9 library is a quertion about price and how to use it, 1/8 fit better in a rack.8 or 9 cartridges does not make much difference.

[Brian M Rawlings · Accepted solution]

Karthik:

Autoloader 1/8 = 2U of rack space
Autoloader 1/ = 5U of rack space

As you say, the 1/9 uses a vertical robotic picker arm motion, so it is tall but narrow. In fact, it was designed so that two could be rackmounted next to each other in the racking kit/tray.

As to the robotics in the 1/8, it is a strange animal. The tapes are all housed in a horizontally rotating "chain", each link of which holds a cartridge. The tape drive sits in the center, facing the mail slot in the front. The only tape that can move in and out of the drive or mail slot is the one sitting on the "chain link" that is between the drive and the mail slot. A fairly simple mechanism moves the tape cartridge in that position either in/out of the drive, or in/out of the mail slot.

It has to be expecting a fairly light duty cycle, but it is an ingenious way to keep the chassis 2U tall and still move tapes around.

I expect it depends on your backup environment. Neither of these is big enough to hold more than a week's worth of backup, and only then if it all fits on one tape. So, if it only has to move one tape in and out of the drive each night, it should last practically forever. If you do backups all day and night on it, well, I don't think it is built for that. Frankly, however, neither is the 1/9 unit...

As to the Ultrium vs DLT8000 or DLT vs80:

DLT (both) use the standard DLT "data IV" tape, cheap these days, and many sites have lots of them. They both hold 40GB native, more with compression (same for each, they use the same compression routines). DLT8000 is exactly 2x the speed of DLT vs80 (6MB/s vs. 3MB/s).

Ultrium drives, on the other hand, are much faster (11MB/s native), hold 100GB native (2.5x either DLT), and have a new, much more expensive cartridge. Given that Ultium holds more, the total media cost may actually be lower (you use 2.5x fewer tapes). If you already have lots of DATA IV cartridges, Ultrium makes less sense, because you have to buy enough to do all your backup rotations plus off-site DR tapes, etc.

So, there you go. "IT DEPENDS". Hopefully, I've given you some idea why one or the other might be better in your environment.

Regards, --bmr

[Brian M Rawlings]

Karthik:

Autoloader 1/8 = 2U of rack space
Autoloader 1/ = 5U of rack space

As you say, the 1/9 uses a vertical robotic picker arm motion, so it is tall but narrow. In fact, it was designed so that two could be rackmounted next to each other in the racking kit/tray.

As to the robotics in the 1/8, it is a strange animal. The tapes are all housed in a horizontally rotating "chain", each link of which holds a cartridge. The tape drive sits in the center, facing the mail slot in the front. The only tape that can move in and out of the drive or mail slot is the one sitting on the "chain link" that is between the drive and the mail slot. A fairly simple mechanism moves the tape cartridge in that position either in/out of the drive, or in/out of the mail slot.

It has to be expecting a fairly light duty cycle, but it is an ingenious way to keep the chassis 2U tall and still move tapes around.

I expect it depends on your backup environment. Neither of these is big enough to hold more than a week's worth of backup, and only then if it all fits on one tape. So, if it only has to move one tape in and out of the drive each night, it should last practically forever. If you do backups all day and night on it, well, I don't think it is built for that. Frankly, however, neither is the 1/9 unit...

As to the Ultrium vs DLT8000 or DLT vs80:

DLT (both) use the standard DLT "data IV" tape, cheap these days, and many sites have lots of them. They both hold 40GB native, more with compression (same for each, they use the same compression routines). DLT8000 is exactly 2x the speed of DLT vs80 (6MB/s vs. 3MB/s).

Ultrium drives, on the other hand, are much faster (11MB/s native), hold 100GB native (2.5x either DLT), and have a new, much more expensive cartridge. Given that Ultium holds more, the total media cost may actually be lower (you use 2.5x fewer tapes). If you already have lots of DATA IV cartridges, Ultrium makes less sense, because you have to buy enough to do all your backup rotations plus off-site DR tapes, etc.

So, there you go. "IT DEPENDS". Hopefully, I've given you some idea why one or the other might be better in your environment.

Regards, --bmr

[Karthik S S]

Thanks for your valuable inputs ... Karthik

[Brian M Rawlings]

Um, sorry about the double post, I had a window hang up in IE and thought the 'submit' had failed. My second reply doesn't deserve 10 more points.

I'm reminded of a bar tender who always bought a round "on the house" when his favorite team scored. One night, when things were very busy and he was distracted several times, he bought a round once, and then again a little later, only to realize that the second time had been an instant replay...