Thunderbolt LTO-6 solution from mLogic...or others?

[C.H.Haskell]

Hello RED world,

In the never ending quest for a media archival solution, anyone seen these LTO-6 thunderbolt 2 decks from mLogic in the wild?
Tapes around 75 US dollars, 2.5T of storage per tape, drag and drop functionality, mounts like a hard disk. 30 years archivable, Deck cost 3500 dollars...

Sounds all good to me but really curious if anyone has experience with this deck or if they even exist yet.

Like many of you, I have a mountain of hard drives, internal and external disc, of every shape and size and its concerning to say the least when
these disc begin to fail.

I have ordered a trashcan mac which is why i am seeking thunderbolt specific tape archival solutions, I appreciate any feedback on this deck or others like it.

cheers.

 

[Jason Diamond]

I think Mark at OffHollywood has some experience with it or will very soon. I think the thing to know is that the enclosure is basically a SAS to Thunderbolt bridge so you won't get "thunderbolt" speeds but rather a nice small easily connected package.

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Have not got my hands on one yet, but Jason is correct. They're a Thunderbolt to SAS expander with the SAS tape unit installed. I'm curious to know who's SAS host controller they're using. Anyway, it's an all-in-one solution where you can pull it out of the box, install the LTFS driver on your system and then just plug in the drive and use it as you would an external HDD or removable media device. Seems reasonably priced, considering the current costs of tape drives and Thunderbolt expansion boxes.

The best LTO-6 mechanisms are about the same speed as a decent hard drive for sustained transfer rates. However, they're a lot slower for specific file access, obviously, and some other factors. These drives can't saturate a 3Gbps SAS/SATA interface, let alone Thunderbolt anything. So it's not like it's being crippled for speed.

 

[Bob Gundu]

I checked it out at NAB and it seemed pretty cool. Tolis Group and Imagine Products are offering bundle deals ($100 off) if you buy their software. In Canada, the mLogic will only be sold through Apple Canada, so no bundle deals for me.

http://www.imagineproducts.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=13&products_id=52

 

[C.H.Haskell]

All good stuff, thanks guys. I think i will give it a go...with this kind of system I am not looking for speed as much as I prefer turnkey and good databasing.

Where do you LTO folks get your cartridges from?

I am seeing 60 bucks for these at BH
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/924932-REG/sony_ltx2500g_lto_6_linear_tape.html

 

[C.H.Haskell]

I checked it out at NAB and it seemed pretty cool. Tolis Group and Imagine Products are offering bundle deals ($100 off) if you buy their software. In Canada, the mLogic will only be sold through Apple Canada, so no bundle deals for me.

http://www.imagineproducts.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=13&products_id=52

Thanks for the link, does anyone know about "Pre Roll Post" for databasing and backing up? Seems quite simple for that price tag.

 

[C.H.Haskell]

This thing is shipping I believe, any feedback from the community?

 

[Jason Osterday]

Weighing this vs the HP Ultrium 6250 which is selling for as low as $2K. I assume a simple SAS host inside a TB enclosure would make the HP work on a Mac as well.

 

[Michael Tiemann]

I have one. My biggest disappointment (which I shared with mLogic) is that they decided to use a line-lump PSU instead of integrating it. The mTape is somewhere between a G-drive 8TB RAID (which is small enough on can grab the drive and PSU with one hand) and the Promise 8-bay RAID (which is big and heavy heavy enough to require two hands, but the PSU is internal). The mTape is large and heavy enough that you need to use two hands, but because of the PSU, you have to make two trips. It's a great product, but flawed because of the external PSU.

 

[Bing Bailey]

http://www.amazon.com/HP-Ultrium-C7976A-6-25-Cartridge/dp/B00AHQUV3S/ref=pd_bxgy_pc_text_y $44 on amazon

 

[Michael Romano]

I have been successfully using the HP internal drive (I bought it as an external) inside the sonnet tb2 echo express IIIR with the add on side unit. Works like a champ. Rack mounted with 3x PCIe slots. Moves effortlessly from the Mac Pro to a MacBook or iMac with a single TB cable. I also have the BRU software. You need an atto h680 (I also discovered my r680 can use the drive too) to get it into PCIe. The r680 solution seems to only work with the SAS LTO drive, not my SATA drive on a SATA to SAS bridge cable. H680 also works with the codex capture dock 2x so it's not a lost purchase. I think all said, it's nearly the same price either way but by skipping mlogic, it's a hell of a lot more flexible.