Welcome to our community

Be a part of something great, join today!

Log in
  • 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 :)

MagStor LTO8 is on the way!

T

Tim Gerhard

REDuser Sponsor
Joined
Jun 21, 2016
Messages
139
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Location
Columbus, OH
Website
www.magstor.com
Hey all,

We're hard at work on our MagStor LTO8 coming soon!

I'm looking for some feedback as to what options people are looking for.

Is anyone going to want LTO8 on Thunderbolt 2? Or is everyone on to Thunderbolt 3 already?

What are your thoughts on having a a dual drive setup in the same desktop enclosure, or the option to upgrade your single unit to a dual yourself?

Any feedback is appreciated!


Also, we're running a special on our TB2 LTO7 the TRB-HL7 with the highest discount ever seen. Use coupon code "REDOCTOBER" to receive a $550 discount on the TRB-HL7 https://magstor.com/collections/mag...7-hp-lto7-6tb-thunderbolt-2-0-ltfs-tape-drive (Sale Ends October 31st)
 
LTO-7 did go quickly. Although so did 6... I think they’re trying to cycle tape tech faster now to keep up with the advancements in other storage tech. Unfortunately, if the tape industry keeps up this pace, they’re going to price themselves out of the market. With LTO-6 and more so with LTO-7, the cost per GB never reached the same proportionate level of cost vs. HDD storage as previous generations had. All that said, LTO still remains the best solution for data archival at this time.

What I’d like to see in an external LTO-3 unit:

* Thunderbolt-3 interface. Secondary TB3 port would be nice to chain up another device or RAID. Many systems showing up with TB3 only have one, maybe 2 ports.

* No external power brick. Keep the PSU internal and use a nice one that is actually compact and efficient.

* Silent cooling fan. Yes the tape mechanism is noisy, but let’s not add to it or give me something else I have to tolerate when not writing to the tape.

* Compact form factor. I want a unit that doesn’t take up any more desk or shelf space than necessary and is easy to move around.

* Multiple options on form factor. In addition to the compact model that would just be a sleek single tape unit, I’d like to see another unit that offers dual tape or the ability to house a small RAID or other media types. I could actually see a market for TB3 RAID units like those from Areca or Promise, but they have a tape drive at the top so the same footprint of device has additional functionality.
 
Plus one on Jeff's list.

If you are considering dual drive, jump right to a library system.
Does not need to be big - but could be designed with modularity / scalability in mind.
Enough for a producer or post house to segregate client projects, users or archive accessibility.

For a location master tool, a box like Jeff described with both tape and RAID, add an evSlot (for mini-mags and similar media) that can be controlled via iOS or Android - Think of the ability to download, backup and manage the days work from your Hydrogen or iPad.

It's OK to dream
 
I'll add my vote for Thunderbolt 3.
I'm looking at buying my first tape unit, so also wondering an eta on LTO8 hitting the market.

I'm not so concerned about having a dual drive option if it keeps the price down. Out of interest would the bandwidth of the cable coming in keep up with writing to a dual drive unit? Would that save us time? Or would you use it so you could be backing up to one, while retrieving from a backup on another?

Thanks
Christian
 
Last edited:
As compact as possible, quiet, TB3+USB-C, and $2K instead of $5K.
 
Jeff Kilgroe said:
LTO-7 did go quickly. Although so did 6... I think they’re trying to cycle tape tech faster now to keep up with the advancements in other storage tech. Unfortunately, if the tape industry keeps up this pace, they’re going to price themselves out of the market. With LTO-6 and more so with LTO-7, the cost per GB never reached the same proportionate level of cost vs. HDD storage as previous generations had. All that said, LTO still remains the best solution for data archival at this time.

What I’d like to see in an external LTO-3 unit:

* Thunderbolt-3 interface. Secondary TB3 port would be nice to chain up another device or RAID. Many systems showing up with TB3 only have one, maybe 2 ports.

* No external power brick. Keep the PSU internal and use a nice one that is actually compact and efficient.

* Silent cooling fan. Yes the tape mechanism is noisy, but let’s not add to it or give me something else I have to tolerate when not writing to the tape.

* Compact form factor. I want a unit that doesn’t take up any more desk or shelf space than necessary and is easy to move around.

* Multiple options on form factor. In addition to the compact model that would just be a sleek single tape unit, I’d like to see another unit that offers dual tape or the ability to house a small RAID or other media types. I could actually see a market for TB3 RAID units like those from Areca or Promise, but they have a tape drive at the top so the same footprint of device has additional functionality.
Click to expand...

Jeff,

Thanks for the input.

Our current TB2 version has 2x TB ports, an internal PSU, and a quiet fan. We're keeping all of those traits in our future versions as well.

We're working on slimming down the case as much as we can, but the internal PSU is what holds us back a bit in that regard. Everyone seems to hate external power bricks, so the trade-off seems worth it.

As for the RAIDs we won't be pursuing those because it isn't our cup of tea, but we'll probably be selling bundles with an Areca RAID for people to daisy chain into the 2nd port. I'm currently looking into the possibility of adding a hot-swap HDD/SSD dock though.
 
PatrickFaith said:
i have gone storage array networks, so 1g or 10g is pretty mandatory for me. also the cost of the tapes are important to me. really i'm looking for some type of carosel tape, i cant deal with mounting single tapes at some emotional level.
Click to expand...

Patrick,

A few manufacturers offered an iSCSI (ethernet) adapter on their tape libraries back in the LTO4 era or so, but it just never took off. I've had some in stock before, but never played with them. I'm assuming they wouldn't be viable with LTFS these days.

The cost of the actual tape stock / media / cartridges have historically started at $120-140 at launch and then eventually drop down to the $30 range before the next gen comes out. LTO7s are $90ish or below now, so I'm not sure where LTO8 cartridges are going to stand.

I'm really hoping that LTFS becomes mainstream for libraries eventually, but the cost is extreme for anything that works on Windows/Linux from what I've seen. MAC users have YoYotta for under 1K that can run a library though, so if you get a 5K library, the expensive isn't that much higher than a TB drive.
 
Hi Bob,

We have LTO8 drives in stock and can do the TB2 version upon request. Our new model is still pending some certifications.

LTO8 media is still rare and the M8 (LTO7 9TB) format isn't supported on most platforms so far.

Prices on the 12TB media are starting around $160ish and I'm sure they'll drop over time.
 
Does the new model awaiting certifications have TB3 / USB3.1?
 
Unfortunately it has to be one or the other right now and USB with tape drives have always been a bad combination. Unitex Japan has a working USB 3.0 LTO5/6/7 drive, but they're capped at 140MB/s transfer rate, which is a hard sale with a 300 MB/s drive.
 
We'll be showing the new system at NAB Las Vegas Booth #SL15218

Free guest passes are available with code LV4898. The free passes expire March 2nd, and will be $50 afterwards.



Edit: Updated new booth # again
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top