Topic: Tape Drive recommendations

[Rich]

I need to install a tape backup unit on e-smith 5.5 (or whenever it arrives  5.6) server.  

It should be at least 20 gig (40 would be a bonus) and on an IDE bus.  

I know that any drive from the redhat compatible lists for 7.2 up should work but it would be nice to have some experienced opinions.

Price and ease of use are the main concerns, I would like it to accessable in the back-up panel and not through third party software (ie taper).

[Andrew Roberts]

I've used the Segate TapStore 20 GB model for about two years now over several iterations of the SME server.  I has been very dependable, and worked "out of the box" with the backup panel in the SME manager.

[Andrei]

Onstream drives. I use an OnStream 50 GB ADR SCSI  drive and it is awsome 50GB of compressed storage. I bought it on Ebay for $80 and the seller included 3 tapes. I connect it to the server by an Adaptec 2940 Ultra Wide SCSI card which is natively supported by SME (Or better yet by redhat linux) works great.

[David Pennycuick]

The Ecrix VXA-1 IDE worked for me straight out of the box.  Zero setup required - I had it in the computer when I did the initial install.  It was recognised for what it was and setup automatically.

Only prob I have is the bug (in flexback or dump I think) where I get a broken pipe error for no apparent reason.  This has been covered in the archive.

HTH

David