StoreEver Tape Storage
1748129 Members
3658 Online
108758 Solutions
New Discussion юеВ

Re: What devices can go into a C4317A

 
SOLVED
Go to solution
Daniel Robert
Frequent Advisor

What devices can go into a C4317A

We currently have and old A500 as our test system hooked up to a C4317A which has a DVD and DDS3 drives in it. The problem is that we have about 164Gb which we would like to backup on a single tape, but obviously not possible with DDS3.

What other device can go into that tape array which can backup that amount of data? LTO?

 

 

P.S. This thread has been moved from General to Tape Libraries and Drives. - Hp forum Moderator

10 REPLIES 10
Steven E. Protter
Exalted Contributor
Solution

Re: What devices can go into a C4317A

Shalom,

This server can attach to a scsi attached HP i/o array(C4317A>). These commonly include a pair of DVD's and a pair of DDS3 tape drives.

The A500 can accommodate a scsi card that supports an LTO or Ultrium drive.

http://partsufer.hp.com to find add in cards for this server.

SEP
Steven E Protter
Owner of ISN Corporation
http://isnamerica.com
http://hpuxconsulting.com
Sponsor: http://hpux.ws
Twitter: http://twitter.com/hpuxlinux
Founder http://newdatacloud.com
Daniel Robert
Frequent Advisor

Re: What devices can go into a C4317A

So there are no other tapes devices other then DDS drives that will fit in the C4317A?
Bill Hassell
Honored Contributor

Re: What devices can go into a C4317A

Tape devices that can go into the Smart Enclosure: DDS and DLT. The DLT 8000 is the largest capacity drive (40 GB native). There are newer DDS drives but I don't believe that they were ever sold in the Smart Enclosure package.

The drives that will backup 160 GB would be the Ultrium 215 or 230 which are LTO1 technology. But you mentioned the 'old' A500. LTO drives will push your system to the limit. They need between 15 and 30 Mbytes/sec of data throughout the backup period, something that your internal drives may not reach. When the tape drive is starved for data, it must stop, backup, and start, a process that takes a lot of time. Here is a review of the drives and throughput.

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&objectID=c00028345

But with this older system, you may be much better off by getting a DDS autochanger that holds one DDS3 drive and 6 tapes. The C6367A is a Smart Enclosure case that should fit your needs.


Bill Hassell, sysadmin
Olivier Masse
Honored Contributor

Re: What devices can go into a C4317A

If you really need to put it on one and only tape, one possible solution could be to push your data daily (using vxdump/fbackup with an NFS drive or a remsh) to another system that has an LTO drive along with ample disk space, then take your backup from there. That'll be slow and far from ideal, but backing up 164Gb from a standalone A500 that isn't hooked to a corporate backup solution is indeed a challenge.

If you put a 1Gb/s NIC in that A500, you could also possibly stream directly to a remote LTO drive using rmt.

Olivier

Olivier Masse
Honored Contributor

Re: What devices can go into a C4317A

Never mind my rmt comment, I didn't completely read Bill's post prior to writing mine.
Daniel Robert
Frequent Advisor

Re: What devices can go into a C4317A

Ooops, I made a mistake, the 164GB is actually the total disk space... the amount used is actually only around 70GB.

I am leaning towards an Ultrium drive since that is what we have for our other servers (Ultrium 460) so that way they would all use the same tape.

If I understand it correctly, there are no Ultrium drive that would fit in the C4317A (I suspected that since all our Ultrium drives are full hieght).

We have a C7508, that is used by another server which has a full-height slot available and I was wondering if it would be possible to get another Ultrium 460 drive and install it in the C7508 and connect it to the A500 (i.e. have the C7508 shared by two servers, each connecting to their own drive)... I imagine that it would.

I think the throughput will be fairly good since most of the data would be comming from the RAID array which is an SC10 with and FC60, albeit the drives are only 10K, so I am not sure. Would anyone know?

I was thinking of doing remote backups, but I think that is is the last resort as I don't want to flood the network doing this and potentially affect the production servers.
Torsten.
Acclaimed Contributor

Re: What devices can go into a C4317A

This "smart enclosure" is just a metal box - nothing else. The question should be about supported tape drives for your server - don't care about this cage.
But if you want, you can put any other DDS drive in your existing DDS drive chassis and insert it into this enclosure.

Hope this helps!
Regards
Torsten.

__________________________________________________
There are only 10 types of people in the world -
those who understand binary, and those who don't.

__________________________________________________
No support by private messages. Please ask the forum!

If you feel this was helpful please click the KUDOS! thumb below!   
Daniel Robert
Frequent Advisor

Re: What devices can go into a C4317A

But the enclosure is only for two half-height drives, so I would only be able to swap-out the current DDS3 with something else as I will definitely need the DVD drive in the other bay since there isn't one in the A500.

I am trying to find the most economical solution since we don't want to spend big bucks for a test server... this is why I am asking what will fit (since it only has a half-height bay) in the existing C4317A, and obviously what will work with the A500 and FC60/SC10.
Bill Hassell
Honored Contributor

Re: What devices can go into a C4317A

The Ultrium 460 will be way too fast for the old A500. The minimum data rate with compression disabled is 30 MBytes/sec, closer to 45-60 MBytes/sec with compression turned on. The A500 internal disks can barely put out 20 Mbyte/sec, much less if the data is scattered across the disk and/or other activities are going on during backups. The Ultrium 460 has data rate matching so it can slow down to about 29 MBytes/sec...still too fast.

Now since you have less than 100 GB to backup, the extra wear and lowered performance may tolerable but I don't believe you'll find the 460 in a compatible form. Network backup is a possibility using fbackup or Data Protector. The impact on your network depends on where the destination is located. For a path that stays on the switch, there should be no impact. If the destination is on another subnet, then the router will quite busy.


Bill Hassell, sysadmin