I generally like the TS3500, but have had some issues in the last 12 months.
Two close to identical libraries in two sites running mainframe TS1120s under mainframe VTL and LTO5's for TSM. We upgraded from LTO3 to 5, upgraded the VTL and added mainframe drives and added storage frames of both kinds. The storage frame upgrade necessitated gripper and library microcode upgrades. This happened in many changes over 6 months always with the test library first. One library was upgraded with no issues. The other library has had multiple issues including slot and gripper failures, inability to use the LTO5 IO ports (combination hardware and software for that one) and repeated "software" failures including repeated errors reported on the VTL and mainframe side of things that will not clear. The resolution process for these is cumbersome. Local engineers, one of whom is the country tape top gun, are at the mercy of the "plant" and repeatedly have to confer with them. They also seem to think nothing of wiping the library database and re-scanning, and have done it multiple times. Unless you have good separation of the tapes in your logical libraries by range, this can cause operational issues, and did, with some tapes being assigned to the wrong logical library and overwritten as TSM thought they were scratch. There is no easy way to save the information beforehand, though I have come up with some scripts using the java command interface and shell scripting to do this. It has all taken far too long and has been far too disruptive. However, I can't say that other vendors are any worse or better. It just is if you are unlucky. I think this particular library ( and of course it is the production one, not the test one) was made on a Friday and is haunted :) Regards Steve Steven Harris TSM Admin Canberra Australia.