Denys' advice is sound, a few expansions below with JIM >>

Unfortunately, this is the exact issue facing homesteaders and others who
are delaying the migration off the HP3000, especially if they have pre-PCI
machines.  The hardware to run it can only be found in antique stores and
can be of varying level of readiness.

You have many options open to you, but as time goes by they will more
difficult to implement.

1- Look for another DLT8000 or a DLT7000, either one will work and you will
not get any performance benefit from either one over the DDS-3, just more
storage on one tape.
JIM >> Agreed.   Also make sure it has HP branded firmware; within the last 2 years had a painful set of System Aborts at a large customer due to semi-random walks through driver state machines initiated by non-certified firmware.

2- Consider getting more DDS-3 drives.
JIM >> Agreed.  We have one medium size N-Class with something like 12 DAT24 drives -- they do either a 4x3 or 3x4 parallel storeset.   No messing with "reel" switches.

3- Consider getting an HVD to SE/LVD SCSI converter and then trying a DDS-4
device.
JIM >> Don't think that is an option since about 5.5/6.0  the "scsi_tape_dm" DDS driver will not "bind" to the F/W SCSI driver.   I think you may only configure the DLT (scsi_tape2_dm) driver "under" the NIO F/W SCSI HBA (fwscsi_dam).  As previously posted DAT40 with DAT24 media has worked well for some sites but DAT40 with DAT40 media is only supported on A/N-Class.

4- Move to a PCI HP3000 (the crippled A series or a small N-class,) then use
newer LVD devices.
JIM >> Agree that PCI Systems will at least enable the usage of much newer "used" equipment and even some new stuff, if you want to buy a XP10k/12k ;-).

5- Consider migrating from the HP3000.  (This is the only long term solution
and where I have been spending my time for the last several years.  The
newer server technology is light-years ahead of where the 3000 stopped and
the new storage devices are incredible, fast and cheap.  The companies that
we migrate are just amazed at the new hardware.)
JIM >> Agreed

Denys...

-----Original Message-----
From: Joe Barnett [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, April 30, 2008 9:53 AM
To: HP3000 List; Denys Beauchemin
Cc: Joe Barnett
Subject: Re: DLT8000

They are new to me.  The server they are being added to has DDS-3's on it
but we are adding another array so we are going to outgrow what we have
very quickly.

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