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Overland Data Neo Series LXN4000 and Compaq StorageWorks MSL 5052

The Overland Data Neo Series LXN4000 and Compaq's MSL 5052, an OEM of the Overland device, of course have similar features. After discussing those features of the basic unit, we'll examine what differentiates the two products.

The 10U rackmount device, also available as a standalone pedestal, has a maximum capacity of 52 DLT tapes. Our review product came with four drives installed (its maximum amount available), and they are indeed hot pluggable while the system is active. The device also includes dual, redundant, hot-swappable power supplies. The only complaint we have on this front is that to hot swap the power supplies, you must unscrew--with a screwdriver--the retaining plate. A simple thumbscrew, like the ones used for the tape drives, would be more convenient. When we unceremoniously yanked one of the power supplies during a backup, the device continued without change. When we reinstated the power supply, a notice appeared on the LCD panel telling us that both redundant power supplies were now operational.

Installation was simple: We merely needed to cable the SCSI on the back of the unit and add the cartridge slots after powering up the system. The mechanism in the unit is also simple; it employs a turnstile device similar to one you might find in a rail yard. This unit runs the picker mechanism up and down between the two levels of the machine via a drive-screw instrument driven by a motor with a geared belt. The turnstile is direct, screw-and-gear driven. Although we usually frown on belt-driven designs, the unit's belts are relatively easy to service. In fact, servicing this unit should be simple because most of the components are readily accessible and designed to be easy to change. The picker uses a plunger mechanism to detect empty slots and tapes that are not bar-coded; for the slots that have bar-coded tapes it uses a laser LED bar-code reader. As with the other devices we tested, the drives are tucked into the back of the unit and are swappable only from the rear of the machine.

Tape Libraries Scaled to the Max Click to Enlarge

The front of the device is curiously unadorned. There are two obvious doors to access the tape magazines, but no obvious way to open them, and a roughly 3-inch-by-4-inch LCD display. A view port offering provides a glimpse at the guts of the system.

We plugged in the unit and flipped the power switch. Nothing. It simply sat there. Luckily we thought to touch the front display, which caused the unit to power on, much to our relief. This is a "feature" of many Overland-manufactured tape libraries. It's not a big deal but can be slightly puzzling if you are unaware of it.

The virtual touch-screen buttons on the LCD display give you access to many functions, including opening the front doors to reach the mail slot and cartridges. The cartridge holders are large, long chunks of black plastic that can be removed from the unit with a strong tug. This system is fast and efficient. The unit re-inventories only the magazines you touch. If you select the left-upper magazine, a stop lever extends from the left-lower magazine to prevent you from moving it without the library's knowing. This saves time on magazine changes.

You can stack as many as three of these units with an elevator mechanism to move tapes from one to another, creating a large array with as many as 16 drives. The front panel provides security to prevent happy fingers from changing anything that might affect your backups. Simple numeric passwords can be required for functions, ensuring that no one can get at the tapes without authorization.

Overland Data Neo Series LXN4000

The main differences between the Overland library and the Compaq device are in the options and support software. The LXN4000 comes with the company's WebTLC control software, which duplicates every feature of the control panel. It is slightly more complete than Compaq's Tape Storage Management (TSM) system and offers much of the same information. The LXN4000 also offers a Fibre Channel interface card that is different from Compaq's, but both cards will perform, making it a wash in that aspect. Like Compaq, Overland provides a three-year warranty with its offering--first year on-site service, parts exchange in years two and three.

The Overland library, rather than the Compaq unit, is our Editor's Choice winner because of its lower price. Even with the difference between list and street, the Overland model is likely to be considerably less expensive. Note, however, that we would not hesitate to purchase either version of this excellent tape library.

Overland Data Neo Series LXN4000, (800) 729-8725, (858) 571-5555; fax (858) 571-3664. www.overlanddata.com

Quantum ATL M1500

The M1500 library comes from Quantum ATL's purchase of M4 Data. One interesting feature of this library is its stackability: You can buy the relatively modest base unit, then expand it to a maximum of 10 units for a total of 20 drives and 200 cartridges. The entire group of 10 can be viewed as one library. This granular scalability gives the M1500 a distinct advantage over the Compaq and Overland units for those businesses that need to start out small but plan to grow.

The M1500 is the smallest unit we tested, standing only 4U high and holding a total of 20 tapes in two magazines. In fact, just one person was able to move the device into the lab after it was unpacked (though the instruction manual does clearly recommend that two people move the library).

On the service front, the drives and fans are all hot-swappable. If the M1500 is used in a stacked configuration, any of the individual M1500s can be removed from the stack without interrupting operations.

Mechanically, the M1500 uses an X-Y axis screw and rail-drive system to move the picker forward, back, left and right. The unit operates on a single plane, so up and down movement is unnecessary. There are at least three noticeable motors and three visible geared belts, including one monster that runs almost the entire width of the machine and includes a couple of idlers. Only one of these belts looks easily replaceable; the rest would need considerable disassembly to replace should they break. The default power supply in this machine is a single-source unit, with no redundancy or hot-swap capability. An upgrade to redundant power supplies is not available. Although the M1500 has continuous-run capabilities in a multiunit configuration, we found the single-unit configuration lacking in this department.

Cartridges move from one library to another via the M1500's StackLink mechanism. Quantum ATL also offers with the unit SDLT (Super DLT) and LTO drives, depending on your taste. The M1500 came with all its documentation on CD in Adobe Acrobat format. The autostart on the CD even ran its own local copy of Acrobat 4, so you can use the program on Microsoft Windows systems that do not have Acrobat installed.

The front of the machine contains an observation window so you can see activities inside the unit, left and right doors for accessing the tape magazines and mail slots (to add and remove single cartridges), a five-button panel with two LEDs, and a 3-inch-by-2.25-inch black-and-white LCD. This unit uses a true laser to read bar-codes, as opposed to the LEDs used by all the other devices we tested. We liked the menu on the M1500. Although not as easy to use as the touch screens on the Compaq and Overland libraries, the menu made moving a cartridge from location to location exceedingly simple. It was laid out in a logical, easy-to-follow fashion that did not require us to dig into the documentation. Only this unit and the Overland and Compaq libraries show which locations are occupied by cartridges and which are empty.

The three-year warranty covers on-site service the first year, and parts exchange for the second and third years.

Quantum ATL M1500, (800) 284-5101, (949) 856-7800; fax (949) 856-7799. www.quantumatl.com or info@quantumATL.com

Compaq Computer Corp. Compaq StorageWorks MSL 5052

An interesting benefit to be gained from the Compaq unit is the Compaq TSM utility, which is available for free at the company's site. This handy little Java-based utility lets you view certain tape functions, including media information; drive serial numbers; media status; and, if Fibre Channel is connected, the worldwide address for the device. The TSM utility also provides an abundance of SCSI bus information and lets you run diagnostics on the system and update the firmware. Of the two versions you can get--console and Web-based Java--the Web version of TSM is easier to use.

We liked the MSL 5052. It was one of the easiest libraries to set up and use, and though it is not as quiet as the Qualstar TLS-6460 or the ADIC Scalar 100, in the data center the difference is not enough to sway us. We were swayed, however, by the high price, which bumped the unit into third place. The three-year warranty includes next day, on-site service for the first year, and parts exchange for the second and third years.

Compaq Computer Corp. StorageWorks MSL 5052, (800) 345-1518; fax (281) 518-1442. www.compaq.com

ADIC Scalar 100

This imposing black tape library is 14U high, takes two strong people to move and has a total drive capacity of six drives. Our unit came with only two drives installed; another was sent in a separate box, presumably so we could experience firsthand the ease of drive installation. Indeed, installation was a snap: We removed two thumbscrews from the back of the tape library, and a blank plate came away easily. Align the drive with the hole, and push it home. Tighten two thumbscrews and, voilá, you have another drive in the system. However, moving media around the Scalar unit was much more difficult than doing so on the Overland and Compaq models.

On the front panel is a 3.75-inch-by-2-inch black-and-white LCD. It is not a touch screen, but rather has a series of four buttons below it for navigation. The front panel also has a large turnstile door that reveals 10 mail slots for loading cartridges into the system. You can open the entire library by unlocking the front door and pulling on the right side of the front of the machine. The mail slots, five of the storage slots and the entire front of the machine swing open on hinges to give you access to the storage columns, the picker and the front of the drives. The Scalar 100 comes with one power supply and offers an additional supply at extra cost. In a dual configuration, the supplies are hot swappable. You cannot stack Scalars to form a continuous tape path.

The Scalar 100 comes in flavors for all the major drive formats, including LTO, DLT, SDLT and AIT-3 (Advanced Intelligent Tape for up to 100 GB). The number of media slots you get depends on the drive type you purchase. With LTO drives, the unit supports 72 media slots, with AIT-3 it supports 96 media slots and with SDLT/DLT it supports 60 media slots. The Scalar 100 includes a 1-year on-site warranty.

Advanced Digital Information Corp. Scalar 100, (800) 336-1233, (425) 881-8004; fax (425) 881-2296. www.adic.com or info@adic.com

Qualstar Corp. TLS-6460

We found the Qualstar TLS-6460 somewhat overwhelming when we first received it. At 44.5 inches tall, 30.5 inches deep and 18.8 inches wide, it is considerably larger than any of the other tape libraries we tested--and at 153 pounds it could almost be a contender for a welterweight boxing title. Of course, we needed several people to move it.

The TLS-6460 holds 60 tapes. The front of the unit has a 1-inch-by-3-inch yellow LCD panel with six buttons below, a keyhole and a mail slot, which Qualstar calls the "IO Port" in the menu and documentation. You can access the mail slot by pushing and holding the asterisk key and then pressing the menu key. You can also home the picker to the top or the bottom by holding down the asterisk key and then pushing the up arrow or the down arrow, respectively.

Tape Library Performance Click to Enlarge

The box includes two separate power supplies that are not redundant--one serves the drives and the other serves the picker. Redundant power supplies are not an option on this unit, which also has only a single source cord for AC power. As for the interface, Qualstar met our request by shipping a unit with a SCSI LVD interface, but the product also comes in other SCSI flavors and with a Fibre Channel interface. One feature we liked is that the drives are entirely concealed within the case, protecting the jumper cables connecting the SCSI drives. To get at the drives and the interface of choice, we twisted four spring-loaded screws on the back of the unit and a large panel came off, giving generous access.

The drives are secured by a rail system and can be detached by simply removing their power supplies and loosening a simple captive thumbscrew. The TLS-6460 has a simple, speedy magazine system we liked a lot. You can quickly change whole magazines in this machine, and its time to re-inventory was a mere 46 seconds. When we opened the front door of the unit, all motion stopped. However, unlike other machines, unless you break a sensor beam that scans across the front of the magazines and drives, the unit will not re-inventory. This is a neat feature if you open up the unit by accident or just to take a look. The TLS-6460 uses a Welch Allyn laser LED mechanism to read bar-codes.

This unit appears to be extraordinarily rugged. The mechanisms of the TLS-6460 are all direct-drive screw driven. The picker arm actually climbs a stationary screw as opposed to spinning the screw. This no-belts feature increases the Qualstar unit's reliability quite a bit. Qualstar has also equipped the TLS-6460 with closed-loop servo motors for reliability, relative quietness and a positive air-pressure system. The fans in the system pull air in through several filters and are strong enough to create positive air pressure inside the case. Positive air pressure ensures that the only dust and dirt that get into the system are what the filters miss. The fans are redundant, and even with one failed, the unit maintains positive air pressure. The Qualstar was one of the quieter libraries we tested.

We found the TLS-6460's menu system nonintuitive and frustrating, but not in the way you would think. In fact, Qualstar's menus are laid out in a consistent manner, and they all work the same way with the same buttons. The problem is that while we could get the job done with only six keys in some places, such as with the move menu, in other places the same logic applied to the menu added keystrokes and generally made the menu system maddening to use. We applaud the company's efforts at establishing conformity but regret the resulting inefficiencies.

The TLS-6460 came with paper manuals exclusively, nary a CD in sight. Documentation consisted of four books: an installation and operation manual, a product specification manual and a SCSIż2 interface manual. Every document is available on Qualstar's Web site, including a technical service manual. For tree-killing customers who want paper copies of the service manual, it is available free of charge. The Qualstar TLS-6460 has a three-year warranty, with the first year offering advance replacement worldwide. Second- and third-year advance replacement is available for $6,400 per year on the model we reviewed. On-site service of the 9-to-5 variety is available in the United States and on a 24-hour basis in select cities.

Our final impression of the TLS-6460 is that it's a rugged, quality unit that in many ways is behind the times. The sheer size of the box coupled with its beige IBM mainframe look and printed manuals gives it a dated appearance. We spoke with Qualstar about this and found that the design is 6 years old. This speaks well to the longevity and quality of the structure, but other issues overshadow these benefits. Density, expandability, failover and ease of use are all issues. The drives are not hot-swappable, and neither are the power supplies. The same tape cartridge capacity can be had at about half the real-estate cost with the ADIC Scalar 100, and the Scalar 100 will take more drives. What the TLS-6460 has going for it is that it is slightly less expensive than most of the other units, and it's built with quality components. But unless sturdiness is your top requirement, there are better tape libraries out there.

Qualstar Corp. Qualstar TLS-6460, (805) 583-7744; fax (805) 583-7749. www.qualstar.com or sales@qualstar.com