Ultrium 215 and 230

[Greg Stark_1]

Is anyone using the Ultrium 215 or 230 in a non-library device. For instance, stand alone or with the SureStore Tape Array 5300 or 5500.

I am ordering a new L1500 and would like to implement a 215 or 230 but my sales rep is recommending a DLT or LTO library which seems like overkill to me.

Thanks again,
Greg

[A. Clay Stephenson · Accepted solution]

Hi Greg:

This one time follow your Sales Rep's advice. Once you get a library, you will never regret it but only if you purchase a solution like OmniBack or Veritas. If you do that, your restores become 'point and click' and you never have to worry about 'where's the tape'.
The backups become fully automated and the only operator intervention required is the loading/unloading of media for offsite storage. The best method is to keep a copy within the library for immediate restore and to make a media copy for offsite storage for disater recovery.

I will advise you to shop around. For example, one of my libraries is actually a StorageTek unit but was also available with an HP badge for about $20K more. It has been my experience with OB2 that even if a library is not in the OB2 support matrix, if it speaks SCSI it will work. I've 'gone off the charts' three times now and I have yet to have a library that I couldn't make work.

Food for thought, Clay

[Kenn Kantola]

A different perspective. We installed a standalone Ultrium 230 in a Tape Array 5500. This is connected to an L2000 running 11i. We are using fbackup and make_tape-recovery only on it., we are not using any other utility. In our room, we do have two Ultrium tape libraries, a 2/20 and a 4/40 backing up all the NT and 2000 servers using CA Arcserve. I would have to say the standalone 230 on the UNIX box works very well. Fbackup works very well with the 230 and the database we use and the type of backup we perform.

[Greg Stark_1]

Kenn, I think the 5500 comes with 5 full U bays. Are you only using 1 of this with the 230 and the rest are empty? It seems like there should be a better tape enclosure for me to use since I will never have 5 tape drives on this server. Do you know of any?

Also, do you have any problems keeping up with the 230? On one of or 2K machines we have a 215 and we have problems keeping it streaming?

Thanks, again
Greg

[Kenn Kantola]

I know you can order the 230 with a standalone enclosure, but you have to order it that way up front I think. We made a mistake in our order and ordered the 230 model meant for a shelf and the 5500 was the only real option we had. We do have two dlt's in the rack now so it isn't that big of a deal.

I have not had any streaming issues with the 230. It is on a dedicated scsi card, not shared with anything.