Here's what I'm considering ...
* Dock vs Tape Drive
* Pros
* Cost
* An external Quantum RDX dock cost $150 and has cartridges with capacity up to
1 TB. A external Quantum LTO4 tape drive (800 MB) costs about $1,550 and an
external Quantum LTO5 tape drive costs about @2,200. I've had 2 tape drives go
bad in the last couple of years, one under warranty and one not.
* Maintenance
* RDX docks don't require cleaning like tape drives do.
* Longevity
* RDX docks have few moving parts so are less prone to failure
* LTO tape drives have restrictions on which cartridges they can access. For
instance, if you have LTO2 tapes and only have an LTO5 tape drive, you can't
read the LTO2 tape. In this circumstance, you might have to restore the LTO2
data back to disk and then save it to LTO5 just to maintain ready access.
Alternatively, buy an LTO3 tape drive and put it on the shelf.
*
LTO Matrix LTO-1 Drive LTO-2
Drive LTO-3 Drive LTO-4
Drive LTO-5 Drive
LTO-1 Tape R/W R/W R
— —
LTO-2 Tape — R/W R/W
R —
LTO-3 Tape — — R/W
R/W R
LTO-4 Tape — — —
R/W R/W
LTO-5 Tape — — —
— R/W
* Cons
* Speed (I'm actually surprised by the tapes having a faster transfer rate than
the RDX cartridges.)
* Quantum RDX connecting via ...
* USB 2.0 has a transfer rate of 25 MB/sec
* SATA has a tranfer rate of 45 MB/sec SATA
* Quantum LTO4 connecting via ...
* Ultra 320 SCSI has tranfer rate of 80 MB/sec
* 3 Gb/sec SAS has transfewr rate of 80 MB/sec
* Quantum LTO5 connecting via ...
* 6 Gb/sec SAS has tranfer rate of 140 MB/sec
* Durability (Lower longevity of RDX dock is offset by much lower price)
* RDX docks
* Dock: 10,000 load/unload cycles
MTBF: 550,000 hours MTBF
Unrecoverable Error Rate: 1 error in 10 14 bits read
* LTO 4 Tape Drive
* MTBF (hours): 250,000 @ 100% duty cycle
Load/Unload Life: 50,000 cycles
Non-recoverable Error Rate: 1 × 10 17 bits (non-media error, clean drive)
* LTO 5 Tape Drive
* MTBF hours: 250,000 @ 100% duty cycle
MSBF: 100,000 cycles
Load/Unload Life: 120,000 cycles
Non-recoverable Error Rate: 1 in 1 × 10 17 bits (non-media error, clean
drive)
* Disk Cartridge vs Tape
* Pros
* Longevity
* RDX Cartridges are disk drives so the ability to read the data on them is
limited only by how long the hard drive can operate
* Cartridge Archive Life: 30 years
* LTO 4 Tape
* Archive Storage: 30 years
* LTO 5 Tape
* Archive Storage: 30 years
* LTO tape drives have restrictions on which cartridges they can access. For
instance, if you have LTO2 tapes and only have an LTO5 tape drive, you can't
read the LTO2 tape. In this circumstance, you might have to restore the LTO2
data back to disk and then save it to LTO5 just to maintain ready access.
Alternatively, buy an LTO3 tape drive and put it on the shelf
* Access time
* RDX drive access is 15 msec.
* LTO 4 access time is 80 secs.
* LTO 5 access time is 51 secs.
* Ease of use
* Since RDX Cartridges are hard drives, writing/reading data on them is much
simpler; as easy as copy a file from the command prompt.
* LTO tapes generally require application software to read\write.
* Cons
* Cost
* RDX 1 Tb cartridge costs about $185
* LTO4 tape costs about $35
* LTO5 tape costs about $65
* Durability
* Since RDX Cartridges are enclosed in a case that's meant to protect them,
they have to be more durable than a bare drive but it's still a hard drive.
* Cartridge: 5,000 load/unload cycles
* LTO tapes are pretty rugged. I've dropped them on concrete floors and have
yet to have one fail.
* LTO 4 Durability: 20,000 load/unload cycles
* LTO 5 Durability: 20,000 load/unload cycles
As with most things, there's no clear-cut winner here. But much food for
thought.
----------------------
Bob Hartung
Wisco Industries, Inc.
736 Janesville St.
Oregon, WI 53575
Tel: (608) 835-3106 x215
Fax: (608) 835-7399
e-mail: bhartung(at)wiscoind.com
Website: www.wiscoind.com
_____
From: Paul Hutchings [mailto:paul.hutchi...@mira.co.uk]
To: NT System Admin Issues [mailto:ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com]
Sent: Thu, 04 Aug 2011 15:27:50 -0500
Subject: RE: RDX Removable Disk Drive
Sorry if this is a naive question but what is the benefit of RDX over LTO?
We backup sufficient that LTO is the only viable tape option so I'm not
familiar with RDX but at a quick glance the cartridges look damned expensive.
Presumably the benefit is that the base device looks to be cheap vs. an LTO
drive/library?
_____
From: Bob Hartung [bhart...@wiscoind.com]
Sent: 04 August 2011 9:23 PM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: RDX Removable Disk Drive
I'm currently using Arcserve and an LTO2 tape drive to backup a remote site. We
do use a GFS rotation of 22 tapes.
Having worked with RD1000 (which is probably a relabeld Quantum drive), would
you see any issues with using the RD1000 (or this kind of technology) as a
replacement for the LTO2 tape drive? I checked and Arcserve supports the
Quantum RDX.
----------------------
Bob Hartung
Wisco Industries, Inc.
736 Janesville St.
Oregon, WI 53575
Tel: (608) 835-3106 x215
Fax: (608) 835-7399
e-mail: bhartung(at)wiscoind.com
Website: www.wiscoind.com
_____
From: Bob Fronk [mailto:b...@btrfronk.com]
To: NT System Admin Issues [mailto:ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com]
Sent: Thu, 04 Aug 2011 15:12:02 -0500
Subject: RE: RDX Removable Disk Drive
I recently deployed a Dell RD1000 (quite possibly the same with a different
label) for a small client I still support.
So far I can’t say anything too bad about it. Setup took only a few minutes. I
could not use the included software because it did not natively support
Exchange without additional licensing, but Windows Backup has worked fine and
the device simply appears as a drive. One of their employees changes the drive
every day and puts it in a Pelican case to take offsite for the night.
The one thing I did do, was buy two devices and some extra drives. They store
the spares off site. I was afraid that 5 years from now, (when they are still
using it because they only refresh when something breaks), the main one gets
stolen or damaged and I can’t find a replacement to restore quickly. This way
they have one to plug in and pull a restore from another machine.
BF
From: Bob Hartung [mailto:bhart...@wiscoind.com]
Sent: Thursday, August 04, 2011 3:59 PM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RDX Removable Disk Drive
I've got a Dell PowerVault 110T LTO2 tape drive that has failed and was out of
warranty so I have to replace the whole thing.
As a possible alternative, I've been looking at the Quantum RDX Removable
Disk Drive. The price of an PowerVault 110T LTO3 tape drive and the cost of the
RDX with 22 cartridges aren't that far apart.
Does anyone have any experience with these units? I'd appreciate any feedback.
Thanks.
----------------------
Bob Hartung
Wisco Industries, Inc.
736 Janesville St.
Oregon, WI 53575
Tel: (608) 835-3106 x215
Fax: (608) 835-7399
e-mail: bhartung(at)wiscoind.com
Website: www.wiscoind.com
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