Allen, I too thought that LTOs might not be up to scratch for 24x7 operation, but I recently went looking. I could only find information for generation 1 of LTO, but both LTO1 and SDLT are rated at 250,000 hours MTBF on a 100% duty cycle.
Now that figure may be playing with engineering numbers, and I'm not sure that I really know what it means - I'm certain that in real life drives fail more frequently than that, so manufacturers must obviously fiddle with the definition of a failure to get their numbers. Anyway, the gist is that LTO drives are ready for 24x7 operation. Regards Steve Steven Harris AIX and TSM admin Brisbane Australia -----Original Message----- From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Allen S. Rout Sent: Thursday, 3 August 2006 12:37 PM To: ADSM-L@VM.MARIST.EDU Subject: [ADSM-L] Tape Drive Choices: What, and why? Hi, all. I'm looking into what choices folks have made for their tape drives, and why they picked what they did. I'm really happy with what I've got, but I figure that state is perpetuated by questioning it, rather than settling in. I'm running 3590s (on the way out) and 3592s. The capacity is close to the top per-cartridge (500G raw per cart), and the speed is quite good, ~80GB/s. When we added the 1-gen 3592s a few years ago, seek speed was an important difference between that and the then current LTO2; I understand that LTO3 has made up some ground there but not all the way. My drives are getting a duty cycle approaching 100%; there are very few times of the day I don't have jobs waiting in line for them. My SE is kind of nervous about them; he says we're mean to them. :) I am given to understand that this kind of treatment tears LTO3s apart; they aren't designed for that kind of 24x7 usage. In a nutshell, I love my 3592s, I run them constantly and have essentially no maintenance issues with them. I've got some of them in a remote installation ~300 miles away, and run them with confidence, so far borne out. (8 months of production) So, any opinions? Love stories for LTO3 or that sun whatever-1000 ? Hate stories? - Allen S. Rout -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.394 / Virus Database: 268.10.5/406 - Release Date: 2/08/2006