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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

LTO3A Experiences / Woes

UPDATE:

Quantum just called me and said they were incredibly embarrassed and sorry for what has been going on. They said that due to my log files and one other customer, they have discovered a nasty bug in the LTO3A drive's firmware.

They are going to issue an patch in about two weeks which will fix this bug. He said they were "extremely confident" that it will be totally resolved with the new patch.

The new patch is also going to fix the java applet user interface which definitely needs some work.

I'm bummed that my first experience with tape drives and quantum was such a nightmare, but I'm really glad that they are on the case now and it's getting resolved.

He said for now, keep the tapes under 250GB and I should be bug free. When you go over that limit something gets messed up with the table of contents and the tape accidentally writes over the files that it had just written, or something like that..
 
zak forrest said:
UPDATE:

Quantum just called me and said they were incredibly embarrassed and sorry for what has been going on. They said that due to my log files and one other customer, they have discovered a nasty bug in the LTO3A drive's firmware.

They are going to issue an patch in about two weeks which will fix this bug. He said they were "extremely confident" that it will be totally resolved with the new patch.

The new patch is also going to fix the java applet user interface which definitely needs some work.

I'm bummed that my first experience with tape drives and quantum was such a nightmare, but I'm really glad that they are on the case now and it's getting resolved.

He said for now, keep the tapes under 250GB and I should be bug free. When you go over that limit something gets messed up with the table of contents and the tape accidentally writes over the files that it had just written, or something like that..
Click to expand...

Zak, thanks for posting this
 
Offhollywood said:
This is why I have no interest in being in the "selling software" business.
Click to expand...

That software would command a boatload more than $40 a pop, considering it would cut productivity in half. But, aren't you cutting the bandwidth of your network in half when you do that? Would it slow your overall throughput?

Here in about two months, there's gonna be a mountain of precious .r3d files to archive in this world. I hope this LTO question gets put to bed before then.
 
I'd call the LTO thing a 'developing situation'.

Ideally I'd like to see Quantum release either a tool or the specification to read/write A-Series data with other LTO devices. My biggest hesitation with this is the incompatibility between A-series and standard LTO drives. Nothing worse than having data locked up on a tape you can't read - there's heaps of LTO series drives (and they are designed with backward compatibility so there will continue to be) - but the A-series is a lot more specialised, and there are far fewer around.
 
Sycophant said:
My biggest hesitation with this is the incompatibility between A-series and standard LTO drives. Nothing worse than having data locked up on a tape you can't read - there's heaps of LTO series drives (and they are designed with backward compatibility so there will continue to be) - but the A-series is a lot more specialised, and there are far fewer around.
Click to expand...

Depends on what you are trying to do.

But I tell you this - if you want to do a pull for the conform of a feature film shot on RED - an A series drive will leave the non-A series drive in the dust. And I have done it - so I speak from first hand experience.
 
Well the drives have the same capabilities - but the A-series has firmware that provides an interface to the stored files. Whereas with a non-A-series drive you are reliant on your backup software to provide that interface (to allow individual file pulls).

It should be entirely possible to create software for non-A-series drives that can read the indexing from an A-series tape and provide the same retrieval capabilities.

LTO storage and functionality is on our radar at ShotWrangler, and will be something we'll be looking at once we get SolidStore kicked off properly.
 
Quantum rep had said that they are making an app to be able to extract the data recorded on an LTO3A drive from a LTO3 drive. He has not got back to me on a possible date of release for this app.
 
Jeff Coatney said:
That software would command a boatload more than $40 a pop, considering it would cut productivity in half.
Click to expand...

Actually, I think it would double productivity. If it was cut in half mark couldn't give it away :biggrin:
 
Offhollywood said:
Depends on what you are trying to do.

But I tell you this - if you want to do a pull for the conform of a feature film shot on RED - an A series drive will leave the non-A series drive in the dust. And I have done it - so I speak from first hand experience.
Click to expand...

That depends on the backup software/database that one uses on the non-A drive. If you're just writing tar on the drive, I agree with you. But in general, the non-A series is faster (as it's most often connected via SCSI or Fibre Channel rather than Ethernet), given the ability to extract specific files from the drive that database driven backup systems allow. This is true with libraries as well as single drives, given the proper support.

It is less convenient for a do it yourselfer or small facility, though.
 
Attention Red Users: The issue described by Zak Forrest has been resolved.

We have an important release of software which is recommended for all LTO-3 A-Series Tabletop and SuperLoader 3A models with LTO-3 A-Series Drives. *SDLT 600A product configurations do not need the update. This release guards against potential data loss in LTO-3 A-Series drives. Please notify all Quantum LTO-3 A-Series users you know.

This release is available from the Quantum web site at:

http://www.quantum.com

Select “Product Information” from the “Service and Support” menu, select your model and scroll down to the Firmware download section.

Firmware updates should be installed from the A-Series Drive’s web page Administration Menu (password: admin) accessed under the “Update Drive Firmware” and “Update Server Firmware” menus.

Please email me directly if you need any assistance installing these updates.

-Tom Goldberg
 
Storage: Quantum LTO-3A? Alternatives?

Storage: Quantum LTO-3A? Alternatives?

Hi there,

any news on the storage-front? I am planning for the Quantum LTO-3A table-top-drive - is this still the way to go? Or are there any other products to consider?:help:

Thanks for your help,

fritz
 
Second-ing Fritz' request.

Do I see it right that a LTO-3a drive costs about 7500 USD, while a LTO-4 can be had for about a third that price? (Doing a quick Froogle check.)

LTO4 storing twice as much as the 3 version, and being smaller, why LTO-3?

Edit: The LTO-3a is a version tailored for the video market.
Quantum's ProVideo A-Series, the first data tape system enhanced for professional video, now includes new LTO-3 A-Series. This revolutionary system combines the well established benefits of data tape archiving with video tape convenience and accessibility.

The LTO-3 A-Series feature set makes the drive MXF-aware which permits video tape-like access to subclips by timecode and provides an unprecedented level of interoperability between applications and environments.

With its built-in Gigabit Ethernet port, the LTO-3 A-Series is a network-attached device so it can be directly connected to any network and accessed by every edit workstation, networked server, graphics devices, or other computer based video equipment on the network.

Because it uses LTO Ultrium 3 tape, the LTO-3 A-Series delivers a 30-year tape archive life to protect professional video, audio and data assets better than any video tape backup. Each cartridge holds 400GB of information and allows faster-than-real-time transfer rates of up to 544 Mb/sec. And, because each LTO Ultruim 3 tape contains key MXF metadata in a tape-based file directory, your media is transportable and exchangeable for seamless application independence.
Click to expand...

Thus my new question would be: For on-set backup, does the LTO-4 HH work as well - I just need a backup solution that is not disk based.
 
Hi Fritz and Martin,

Quantum does indeed charge a premium for the "A-Series" tape drives - what you get for the money is interchangeability and convenience. Here is my admittedly biased take on this:

LTO-4 drives offer double the capacity (800GB vs. 400GB) and much higher speeds than the LTO-3. They are not currently available in an A-Series version but we hope to have LTO-4 A-Series drives shipping by early next year.

Using any non-A-Series data drive requires a bunch of labor and setup: an interface card to talk to the drive, backup software such as Bakbone or Retrospect and a dedicated computer which must be managed on the network and maintained for the purpose. Bakbone or other archiving applications pack data into un-viewable blocks and archives are both application dependent and dependent upon the asset tracking files created by these archiving applications. Thus the only tracking of content is in the backup software's database, which must also be backed up separately for full protection. Data tapes are not easily interchangeable other than with identically equipped systems and then only when content is manually managed.

In contrast, A-Series systems save files with their names in a directory viewable file system. Each file entry in the directory has typical file system metadata (file name, creation date, size, etc.) plus if it is an MXF file, key MXF metadata is also preserved and users can create subclips via a built-in partial restore capability. Finally A-Series data tapes are portable and exchangeable with any other similar A-Series drive, making it possible to ship data tapes around as easily as you would a DVD.

In summary, stand-alone drives are lower acquisition cost but require significant installation, setup and maintenance, all of which can well exceed the additional cost of our solution. A-Series drives are much easier to install, setup and maintain, and provide more flexible interchangeable archives.
 
I have an LTO3-A. You just put the tape in and drag stuff over like it's any other kind of disk. To install you put it on your desk and plug it in to the wall and then plug it into the computer's ethernet port and then turn it on.

Tom do I need to download the A-Series software update from the quantum website or is the one that I downloaded from the FTP a while back the same thing?

Thanks
 
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