Shall we play a game? Ebay tape library

nutcase

nutcase

nutcase

Soldato
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SX, unfortunately
Had a slight hiccup yesterday - not really sure why but I clicked on "buy now" on a Dell TL4000 tape library - 152003768129 - Was intending to see how many bonus Nectar points I'd get if I bought it, without realising I was actually buying it. Yes I could say I didn't want it and potentially get an unpaid strike, but I sent a message asking what LTO drive was in it. The answer came back "LTO-5, I think". So I've taken the gamble - seller has been on ebay a couple of years but not sold much, very little description and one rubbish photo. I'm not expecting much.

So, what do people think I'll get? Nothing? A pile of scrap? A stonking bargain?

If it has an SAS drive I can connect it up, if it has FC I've not got any HBAs. Only tapes I have are old DLTs so can't even try that.

Place your bets :D
 
I've got plenty of rack space for it - assuming it comes with the rack mount kit...

edit: sorry just saw you put 42u not 4u - THAT would be an issue!
 
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first thing to do is test the drive using ibm's itdt and run a slot test to see how good the picker is.

out of all the ebay listings you must have bought the worse listing like ever!
 
It is a poor one isn't it. I've had replies to a couple of queries from the seller so I think I'm going to get something. I've done a ton of recent unexpected overtime at work so if I do come up bust I can still feed the family :o

Wouldn't normally go near an ad like it so no idea why I did this time...
 
If it ends up being FC and you have a device that has PCI-X slots, I'll send you a card and an LTO-4 tape to test it :p

Sounds like it could potentially be a bargain if it is indeed LTO-5.
 
Thanks - no pci-x though :(

I'm told I should have it by the end of Friday. I think it's more likely to be FC, which would be a shame as the server I want to hang it off has run out of slots but has a couple of spare external SAS ports (yes I know you shouldn't mix HDD and Tape on a single HBA but it would be for testing only).

I'm secretly hoping for a bargain, but not expecting much really.
 
It looks as though the drives can be removed from the library - so it could well be that you'll get the autoloader without any drives :(
 
This has also crossed my mind - but then I'd go down the not as described route as one of the few words in the ad is "functional".
 
Looking at the guys sold list. The good news is he hasn't told any drives so either they're sitting on them to sell at a later date or more than likely still inside the LT4000 and from memory when we had Dell engineer's to replace the drives when tapes got stuck. It was a 2 hour job to replace. Then again the engineer would rather spend time chatting than doing the work....
 
The manual implies it's quite easy to remove a drive - but if you've got to try and get it to spit a tape out first that could take ages I guess. I've not used tapes since DLT IV - RDX the last few years which are HDDs in a cartridge so it' s going to be a learning curve if I end up using it.

I have a (valid) tracking number. Delivery by parcel farce tomorrow so proably smashed to smithereens :D
 
if the unit has no drives there will be a gaping hole in the back. being ebay its probably been swapped out with a new library or just removed as it has some issues maybe. but you may be able to make the money back from the drive alone if it has one, that's where the money is.
 
Well it's here :)

Medium win I think.

It's out of warranty (not a surprise)
It's FC (not a surprise - knew I should have pre-emptively ordered an HBA)
It's LTO-4 not 5 (boo hiss but better than 3!)
It's not got rack rails
It's got two HH drives
It appears to be in great condition
It came with two tapes - says unencrypted (no encryption licence with it - I presume the software that may have written to the tapes could have been encrypted)
The SNMP trap sends to a certain blue low cost airline from Ireland
The email notifications were set to send to an NHS address
There's no errors in the logs.

So I don't think I'll keep it, but should be able to make my money back possibly with a bit on top - assuming it passes diagnostics when I get the HBA.
 
Take one drive out, and the tapes and flip it on eBay.

I'm assuming here that it'll function just fine with a single drive? Our Tandberg will.
 
Once I've run the full diagnostic and all is well I'll probably sell one drive, and if that goes for decent money, sell the other drive. If that nets enough for an LTO5 drive I may do that.
 
Got it all connected up, ran health tests on both drives, all passed, speeds showing as 109 and 111 MB/S. Currently running a full write test (512kb incompressible) on the first drive and it was sitting on 113 for quite a while. Home drom work now and it's down to 108. Don't know if that's a bad sign?
 
Second drive still showing 113 so far. I'm having a nose at the log for the first drive but really not familiar with what I'm looking at!
 
See if this works...

Code: 
===>>>>>>>>>>>>>>   Log Sense PAGE: 02: Write Error Counters  <<<<<<<<<<<<<<===
 PAGE                                : 02: Write Error Counters
 PAGE LENGTH                         : 76
 Total Corrected Errors              : 0
 Total Write Retries                 : 0
 Total Write Kb Processed            : 21484544
 Total Uncorrected Errors            : 0
 

 

===>>>>>>>>>>>>>>   Log Sense PAGE: 03: Read Error Counters  <<<<<<<<<<<<<<===
 PAGE                                : 03: Read Error Counters
 PAGE LENGTH                         : 68
 Total Corrected Errors              : 0
 Total Read Retries                  : 0
 Total Read Kb Processed             : 1
 Total Uncorrected Errors            : 0
 

 

===>>>>>>>>>>>>>>   Log Sense PAGE: 06: Non-Medium Errors  <<<<<<<<<<<<<<===
 PAGE                                : 06: Non-Medium Errors
 PAGE LENGTH                         : 8
 Total Non-Medium Err Cnt            : 0
 

 

===>>>>>>>>>>>>>>   Log Sense PAGE: 06: Non-Medium Errors  <<<<<<<<<<<<<<===
 PAGE                                : 06: Non-Medium Errors
 PAGE LENGTH                         : 8
 Total Non-Medium Err Cnt            : 0
 

 

===>>>>>>>>>>>>>>   Log Sense PAGE: 14: Device Statistics  <<<<<<<<<<<<<<===
 PAGE                                : 14: Device Statistics
 

 #NO  PARAM CODE                           PARAM VALUE 
 1    Lifetime Media Loads                 1305
 2    Lifetime Cleaning Op.                19
 3    Lifetime POH                         11882
 4    Lifetime MMH                         2577
 5    Lt Meters Tape Processed             18754525
 6    Lt MMH Incompatib. Media             0
 7    Lt POH Temperature Cond.             0
 8    Lt POH Power Cons.Cond.              0
 9    MMH since last Clean                 1
 10   MMH since 2-last Clean               98
 11   MMH since 3-last Clean               105
 12   Lt POH Forced Reset/Eject            0
 13   Lifetime Power Cycles                19
 14   Volume Loads since last P. Reset     0
 15   Hard Write Errors                    0
 16   Hard Read Errors                     0
 17   Duty Cycle Sample Time               0
 18   Read Duty Cycle                      0
 19   Write Duty Cycle                     0
 20   Activity Duty Cycle                  0
 21   Volume Not Present Duty Cycle        0
 22   Ready Duty Cycle                     0
 23   Drive MFG Serial Number              1068006832
 24   Drive Serial Number                  1068006832
 25   Medium Removal Prevented             0
 26   Max. Recom. Mechanism Temp. Exceeded 0
 
 

 #NO Density Code    Medium Type      Media Motion Hours 
 1   Ultrium 3       Ultrium 3        1
 2   Ultrium 3       Ultrium 3 WORM   0
 3   Ultrium 4       Ultrium 4        1455
 4   Ultrium 4       Ultrium 4 WORM   0
 5   Ultrium 5       Ultrium 5        1123
 6   Ultrium 5       Ultrium 5 WORM   0
 

 #NO **** Legend **** Cond= Condition Lt  = Lifetime MMH = Media Motion Hours **** End of Legend **** 
 

 

===>>>>>>>>>>>>>>   Log Sense PAGE: 16: Tape Diagnostic Data  <<<<<<<<<<<<<<===
 PAGE                                : 16: Tape Diagnostic Data
 PAGE LENGTH                         : 864
 **** Legend ****                    : 
 Lt  = Lifetime                      : 
 MMH = Media Motion Hours            : 
 **** End of Legend ****             : 
 

 #NO  Param  Density Code    Medium Type      Lt MMH   Repeat+SK                                ASC+ASCQ                                                Last FSC                              Last Flag  Prod.Rev.Lvl  Hrs s.last Clean  Op.Code  Serv.Action  Medium ID Number        Time Orig.                      Timestamp         
 1    0000h  Ultrium 5       Ultrium 5        0        03: Medium Error                         3001 Unknown Format                                     2C0B: Invalid Catridge Type Value     9212h      42313731h     0                 1Bh      00h          A9A4C5FWT6              Initialized to zero at Power-on 00 00 00 00 f8 ab
 2    0001h  00h             None/Ultrium 1   0        00: No Sense                             0000 No Additional Sense                                0000: No Error Detected               0000h      00000000h     0                 00h      00h                                  Initialized to zero at Power-on 00 00 00 00 00 00
 3    0002h  00h             None/Ultrium 1   0        00: No Sense                             0000 No Additional Sense                                0000: No Error Detected               0000h      00000000h     0                 00h      00h                                  Initialized to zero at Power-on 00 00 00 00 00 00
 4    0003h  00h             None/Ultrium 1   0        00: No Sense                             0000 No Additional Sense                                0000: No Error Detected               0000h      00000000h     0                 00h      00h                                  Initialized to zero at Power-on 00 00 00 00 00 00
 5    0004h  00h             None/Ultrium 1   0        00: No Sense                             0000 No Additional Sense                                0000: No Error Detected               0000h      00000000h     0                 00h      00h                                  Initialized to zero at Power-on 00 00 00 00 00 00
 6    0005h  00h             None/Ultrium 1   0        00: No Sense                             0000 No Additional Sense                                0000: No Error Detected               0000h      00000000h     0                 00h      00h                                  Initialized to zero at Power-on 00 00 00 00 00 00
 7    0006h  00h             None/Ultrium 1   0        00: No Sense                             0000 No Additional Sense                                0000: No Error Detected               0000h      00000000h     0                 00h      00h                                  Initialized to zero at Power-on 00 00 00 00 00 00
 8    0007h  00h             None/Ultrium 1   0        00: No Sense                             0000 No Additional Sense                                0000: No Error Detected               0000h      00000000h     0                 00h      00h                                  Initialized to zero at Power-on 00 00 00 00 00 00
 9    0008h  00h             None/Ultrium 1   0        00: No Sense                             0000 No Additional Sense                                0000: No Error Detected               0000h      00000000h     0                 00h      00h                                  Initialized to zero at Power-on 00 00 00 00 00 00
 10   0009h  00h             None/Ultrium 1   0        00: No Sense                             0000 No Additional Sense                                0000: No Error Detected               0000h      00000000h     0                 00h      00h                                  Initialized to zero at Power-on 00 00 00 00 00 00
 11   000Ah  00h             None/Ultrium 1   0        00: No Sense                             0000 No Additional Sense                                0000: No Error Detected               0000h      00000000h     0                 00h      00h                                  Initialized to zero at Power-on 00 00 00 00 00 00
 12   000Bh  00h             None/Ultrium 1   0        00: No Sense                             0000 No Additional Sense                                0000: No Error Detected               0000h      00000000h     0                 00h      00h                                  Initialized to zero at Power-on 00 00 00 00 00 00

I think it all looks ok?
 
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