jgeld@caen.engin.umich.edu (Jon Geld) (04/05/91)
Howdy folks, We are currently evaluating the possibility of purchasing a small (~60 GB) eraseable optical jukebox to attach to our VMS vaxcluster. The ones we are looking at now would be SCSI devices attached to a VS3100-76. I am looking for some feedback regarding system management duties to support these beasts. How much set up time is required? How often do you monitor the system? If you have frequent swapping of disks through the mailbox, who handles it (the sys mgr or the user)? What kind of maintenance problems do you have with it, especially on the mechanical jukebox portion of it? We are currently looking at an offering from US Design and one other vendor which I can't recall. Basically any information you can give me would be most helpful. We are currently deciding between this and a large winchester farm to solve our space needs. I'm pretty aware of the problems with the winchester farm, but we have no experience with optical drives and our past experience with new technology (ie 8mm drives) has made us cautious. Thanks for any help you can give. Please e-mail to the address below and I'll summarize to the net. ============================================================================ Jon Geld | geld@mail.physics.lsa.umich.edu - Internet Systems Manager, Physics | geld@umiphys - BITnet University of Michigan | MICH::GELD - HEPnet ============================================================================