Re: Where is the problem: Tape Drive? Cartridge(s)? Cable? SAS Controller?
Gene Heskett wrote:
> On Thursday 02 January 2020 12:13:43 Dan Ritter wrote:
>
> > Jack G F Hill wrote:
> > > So, is the culprit the LTO-5 drive? Cartridge? possibly the I/O
> > > signal cable? the SAS Controller? What do I need to do to determine
> > > the true cause of the errors with /dev/st0?
> > >
> > > LTO-5 SAS Tape on LSI SAS9211 controller
> >
> > This log suggests that the controller lost contact with the
> > tape drive, reset it and at 8:02:36 re-recognized it.
> >
> > I would look at a cable (cheap!), then at whether you have
> > sufficient power to keep the tape drive happy, before sending
> > the tape drive to a repair specialist.
> >
> > -dsr-
>
> If its the drive, and given the OP's stated money consraints, (I got
> tired of my tape drive spending the holidays in Oklahoma City) and as an
> amanda user of about 2 decades, I found it easy to convert amanda to
> use "vtapes" on a big hard drive. Besides the advantage of random
> access when doing a recovery so its 100x faster, the big hard drive has
> the added advantage of the dependability of a hard drive. Yes, in 15
> years I have replaced that drive, but not because it failed, but because
> my requirements out-grew it. The one I took out has 100,000+ spinning
> hours on it and I'm considering installing Buster on it.
I'm not quite as sanguine as Gene about the longevity of hard
disks, but an LTO5 drive costs $250 or so used and a cartridge
holds 1.5TB for about $20.
A 4TB disk is $100 right now, so for a $400 investment one could have
4 x 4TB spinning or 7 x 1.5TB tapes. If the tape drive turns
out to be a loss, disks are probably the way to go.
That also enables better storage mechanisms, like rsync,
rsnapshot, or ZFS with compression turned on.
-dsr-
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