Topic: Tape backup compatability

[Duane Alleman]

Does anyone know if the Dell Tape drives are supported under SME 5.6?  It is a PowerVault 100T, IDE, TR5, 10GB.  They offer Linux software for it, but do you think I wil need the software or can I do basic backups via SME with no extra software needed?  Tahnks in advance for your help!

[Steve]

Duane:

Do you know anything about if the controller is required with the Dell Tape Drives?  I noticed when looking at the servers there is an option for the controller.

[Duane Alleman]

Here is the info from the Dell site:

No controller (Cheapest at $199) with linux software it is $299
PowerVault 100T TR-5 An economical tape backup drive designed to be cost-effective and deliver backup capacities up to 20GB1 with throughputs up to 1 MB/sec. Travan tape drives use IDE controllers to provide backup solutions for PowerEdge SC servers. PowerVault Travan drives can be purchased with optional Yosemite TapewareTM , Tape Backup Software which provides data compression, disaster recovery and simplified backup scheduling


with controller (expensive at $699)
PowerVault 110T DLT VS80 Based on Digital Linear Tape (DLT) technology, the DLT VS80 tape drive is a half-high, reliable tape drive delivering up to 80GB1 of capacity at up to 6MB/sec1. The DLT VS80 tape drive is ideal for rack-dense PowerEdge server backup.

[jr]

There's two different drives involved here.

The TRAVAN (inc tr5) which is in essentials QIC usually works OK with flexbackup under e-smith (we have found one machine that just won't work, but usually it does).

DLT/SCSI is a different thing altogether... not tried it so no comment.

[Steve Bush]

I have used Dell's VS80 tape drive and their DDS-4 drive.  Both SCSI and hooked up to the internal SCSI adapter.  I use the RAID card for the hard drives.