Milton, Thanks for the info. I briefly looked at Sepaton, but I had no idea they were that inexpensive. I will probably give them a second look.
But one thing that I'm struggling with is "why a VTL?" Between random-access DISK volumes and sequential-access FILE volumes what does a VTL buy me that I couldn't implement using those two volume types in TSM? Thanks. Tab Trepagnier TSM Administrator Laitram, L.L.C. "Johnson, Milton" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 06/15/2004 03:13 PM To: "Tab Trepagnier" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> cc: Subject: Tier'ed library Tab, We are faced with the same options and are seriously looking at Virtual Tape Libraries (VTL), an appliance that is physically a large SATA Raid Array but presents itself to TSM as a tape library. The product we are looking at is the Sepaton S2100-ES (www.sepaton.com). The things we like include: 1) It's TSM certified, meaning that it has passed the same certification the "real" tape libraries passed. 2) Cheap. We have been quoted $30K (USD) for the first 3TB and $18K (USD) for each additional 3TB. 3) Modular: Purchase the first 3Tb then expand in 3TB increments up to 200TB. After that you purchase another VTL. 4) Performance: Since it's disk based it's very fast, up to 1.6 TB/hour. Since the "tape drives" are virtual tape drives you can configure a tape library to have 200 tape drives, eliminating the tape drive bottleneck. "Tape mounts" happen instantly. 5) Because of the high performance and large number of available virtual tape drives, you should be able to reclaim the virtual tapes when they are only 25% reclaimable, instead of waiting until they are 50% reclaimable. This should allow much more efficient usage of the "tape space". We will just use our present 3494 ATL to cut off-site tapes. We haven't implemented it yet, but we are actively pursuing it. Our contact is: David Littman The More Group 47 East Grove Street Middleboro, MA 02346 [EMAIL PROTECTED] 508-946-2255 x19 H. Milton Johnson