Midrange Stuff, OS/400 Edition

iSeries shops looking to upgrade their tape drives may want to check out the latest LTO 2 tape libraries that IBM announced last week. Big Blue's new entry-level 3582 tape library uses the latest LTO Ultrium 2 tape drives, while an updated version of the midrange 3583 library allows users to intermix LTO 1 with LTO 2 drives and tapes. LTO 2 offers double the capacity and data-transfer speed of first-generation LTO drives and has other benefits as well.

IBM has a single model in its new Ultrium Tape Library 3582 line, the Model L23, which features one or two IBM LTO Ultrium 2 tape drives in a 23-cartridge library, with a native storage capacity of up to 4.8 TB of data, which doubles to 9.6 TB with 2:1 compression. The 3582 can be equipped with either LVD or HVD SCSI drives, or higher performance Fibre Channel drives, and it can be connected to storage area networks and a variety of hosts, including OS/400, Unix, Linux, and Windows servers. The 3582 can be used as a stand-alone unit or mounted in a standard rack, where it consumes four rack units of space.

The 3582 rounds out IBM's LTO, or Linear Tape-Open, automation products and provides a middle-tier offering between IBM's 3581 autoloader, which has one drive and can hold seven cartridges or up to 700 GB of data (non-compressed), and the "Scalable" 3583 library, which can have up to six drives and can hold up to 72 cartridges, or 14.4 GB of data. The capacity of the three 3583 models--the L18, the L36, and the L72--is doubled as a result of the new LTO 2 drives. Above the 3583 sits the cabinet-sized "UltraScalable" 3584 library, the mother of all IBM LTO libraries, which can be expanded modularly to nearly a petabyte of compressed data with its full complement of six library frames, 72 drives, and more than 2,500 cartridges.

Last week's LTO 2 announcements--coupled with similar improvements IBM made in February to the core 3580 drive and its high-end 3584 library--represent some of the biggest enhancements in IBM's LTO Ultrium tape products since it began shipping LTO technology in 2000. IBM worked with a consortium that included Hewlett-Packard and Seagate Technology to develop the open-tape standard in the late 1990s, and started rolling out the new LTO 2 drives this year.

LTO 2 offers other benefits beyond the obvious improvements in capacity and speed in the LTO 2 specification (200 GB capacity and 35 MB/sec transfer rates versus 100 GB and 15 MB/sec in LTO 1 drives). Digital speed matching technology in LTO 2 drives reduces the number of backhitch repositions and improves throughput performance, IBM says, while tape drive channel calibration allows each read/write data channel to be customized for optimum performance. LTO 2 drives also include new file-mark capabilities that improve the performance of append operations, they have 64 MB of internal buffer (compared with 32 MB in LTO 1 drives), and they feature significantly faster cartridge fill times, for reading both LTO 1 and LTO 2 cartridges.

IBM also has incorporated its patented Multi-Path architecture in its LTO 2 drives, which allows users to define multiple logical libraries within a single physical library and allows heterogeneous applications to simultaneously share a single physical library. Additionally, IBM has added control-path failover capabilities, but only for AIX-pSeries environments.

IBM claims its LTO 2 capabilities--particularly its 35 MB/second throughput and its Multi-Path architecture--surpass those of competing LTO 2 drive and library providers, including StorageTek, ADIC, Overland Data, and Exabyte. IBM said in its announcement that those companies are not expected to enhance their LTO 2 offerings for the rest of the year, which should keep its LTO 2 libraries on the leader board for the most scalable library without having to swap out of the entire unit.

However, in other LTO library news last week, StorageTek announced it will begin shipping 35MB/sec LTO 2 Fibre Channel drives. While StorageTek has used IBM LTO 2 drives for SCSI connectivity, it chose Hewlett-Packard Fibre Channel LTO 2 drives for its L180 and L700 libraries. Those drives will cost $17,500 each and will be available later this month. While StorageTek has recommitted to supporting iSeries with its high-end tape drives and libraries, it does not offer OS/400 connectivity with its line of LTO libraries, although it looking at how best to offer that capability in the future.

IBM's new 3582 library and LTO-2 capable 3583 libraries shipped last week for AIX, Linux, and Windows operating systems. IBM says it will ship the 3582 and 3583 HVD SCSI attachment and control-path failover feature for SCSI drives for OS/400 and other operating systems on June 13.

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