OmniBack & autoloaders

[Richard Ray]

I'm thinking of getting a HP 40x6 DDS4 autoloader. I use OB3.10 and I'd like to hear from people who have experience with similar devices and OmniBack. Does OB control the loader to provide random access to the tapes?

[Anthony Goonetilleke]

I use a similar config but the DLT version with an Autoloader an OBII works like a dream. You will have to configure the autoloader device first and then you can easily create the media in the omni/media interface.
Make sure you can access and move tapes around using something like uma beofre configuring OBII. This will make sure that you can access everything.

[John_Hancock]

I agree with Anthony. I would recomend the DLT version. Ours als has a bar code reader. We print the bar codes with a Brother label printer and a PC interface. It is a realy neat way of tracking the tapes.

John Hancock

[Richard Ray]

Are you talking about a autoloader or a library? I'm talking about a 6 tape autoloader. The reason I feel a DDS device is better for this situation is because I plan to have this device at a remote site and access it across the state wan. The price of DLT is about 3 time the price of DDS and I don't need the performance of the DLT. I would like to know if OBII can access the individual tapes on this device or if the autoloader handles the tapes and OBII only sees one media.

[Ray Krupinski]

We also use DLTs. However, if the autoloader has a separate LUNs for the picker mechanism and the drive, OB should controll it.

See
http://ovweb.external.hp.com/lpe/doc_serv/
A.03.10 Software Release Notes , page 31

http://www.openview.hp.com/products/omnibackmixed/system/