How many tapes do you manage? If the number is under 50 to 100 (depending on how much you like manual recordkeeping), you can manage that many tapes by hand. Beyond that number, the effort becomes overwhelming. That is where the barcode reader becomes a near necessity.
As long as all your tapes fit into the library and you never take them out of the library unit, then you probably don't need barcodes or a barcode reader. But, if you do the sensible thing, sending some subset of your tapes offsite for disaster recovery purposes, then the barcodes become necessary to ensure that you and/or Amanda can then reload the library without having to reread every tape on reinsertion into the library. I encourage you to consider getting the barcode reader, if nothing else than to encourage you to keep some of your tapes offsite and to set up good storage management habits. Don Donald L. (Don) Ritchey E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -----Original Message----- From: Fran Fabrizio [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, November 25, 2003 9:55 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Barcode readers: how important? I'm newly entering the area of large-scale backup operations, and I have an option to add a barcode reader to our tape library system that we will be ordering (Qualstar TLS-5433 SAIT). I'm wondering how important it is to have a barcode reader on the tape library? The way I understand it (shaky, at best) is that Amanda writes a label to the front of each tape, and that if you have barcodes on your tapes, it maintains a mapping table between the two. Seems like an extra step to me, so the barcodes must have some benefit from a human-convenience point of view, as opposed to Amanda itself. Frankly, I'd rather not spend the money as long as I don't regret it later. Thoughts? Thanks, Fran ************************************************************************ This e-mail and any of its attachments may contain Exelon Corporation proprietary information, which is privileged, confidential, or subject to copyright belonging to the Exelon Corporation family of Companies. This e-mail is intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to which it is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient of this e-mail, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution, copying, or action taken in relation to the contents of and attachments to this e-mail is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender immediately and permanently delete the original and any copy of this e-mail and any printout. Thank You. ************************************************************************
