LTO-5 tape devices.

[Eemans Dany]

Hi,

Does anyone have any experience with LTO5 tape devices?

I am planning to install a tape library with LTO5 FC connected tape drives.
I would like to know if there are special concerns to take care and your findings about the new devices.
Like what is the average performance, reliability, configuration….
Anything good or bad is welcome.

Our environment:

San attached servers to EVA 8000 and 8100.
Brocade san directors with 4 Gbps ports.
San attached library (LTO 3 at this moment, and must be replaced).
Dataprotector 6.0 (Upgrade planned to 6.11 in Q3).

Any input is appreciated and rewarded.

Dany

[Patrick Terlisten · Accepted solution]

Hello Dany,

you should check if DP 6 can support your new TL. If not, you have to update to 6.11 before you replace the TL.

The performance depends on you enviroment and the kind of backuped data.

Regards,
Patrick

[Eemans Dany]

Patrick,

I am aware of your point. I probably do the upgrade to 6.11 before installing a new library. But at present time, my management is have doubts by buying an LTO-4 TL (older proven technologie) or buying an new LTO-5 TL (newer technologie).

Dany

[P Muralidhar Kini]

Hi Dany,

Check the following link -
http://www.enterprisestorageforum.com/continuity/features/article.php/3860261/LTO-5-Breathes-New-Life-into-Tape-Storage.htm

This talks about LTO4 & LTO5.

>> LTO-4 TL (older proven technologie) or buying an new LTO-5 TL (newer
>> technologie).
Its always better to move to a newer technology. May be you could also wait for
some time for the new technology to get stable and then consider switching over
to it. Again there would be a lot of considerations that may need to be done from
the business point of view.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Murali

[Ken Krubsack]

Dany, your config and situation sounds similar to ours. Couple of things I'd recommend in general based on experience:

1. If you have dedicated media servers, get them to current hardware.
2. DEFINITELY have your network as fast as you can (at least GB) and your SAN connections at 4 GB.
3. If your budget permits, and you don't have dedicated DP media servers, think long and hard about it. The fewer boxes you have that access the tapes directly, the better.
4. Think about doing DP snap backups of your SAN-attached drives. That will present the snapshot of the drives to a dedicated media server and take a lot of load off the client servers.

[Marino Meloni_1]

One of the main issue with LTO5 is that it is difficult to keep them streaming, even with the ATS system that slow the speed down.
If you have a lot of slow server to backup and a old SAN configuration, you may also start thinking about a staged backup, running a first backup to a virtual library or to disk, this will not care about source data speed, then during the day moving data from the VTL to the LTO5, this will run to full speed

[Eemans Dany]

Hi,

thanks for al of your reply's.
They are helpfull in deciding the next steps.

If anyone has further info, do not hesitate to update the tread.

Dany