[Info-vax] A VS DLT rant

[Rich Jordan]

On Aug 22, 8:41 pm, c... at wvnet.edu (George Cook) wrote:
> In article <22477b62-a162-49fe-9a78-4ab62609a... at h7g2000yqm.googlegroups.com>, Rich Jordan <jor... at ccs4vms.com> writes:
>
>
>
> > I despise VS series DLT drives.
>
> > A couple years ago we purchased two new in box but old stock VS80s to
> > upgrade both VMScluster and wintel backup (from DAT).  All new tapes
> > (since the pile of DLT8000 tapes we had would require degaussing to
> > work on these drives).
>
> > One drive worked fine until now (unfortunately the one on the PC
> > side); the other drive self destructed after about 1 month of
> > operation (outside of the seller warranty, and since this was old
> > stock there was no HP warranty).  So we limped along with DAT backups
> > on the VMS side (which never failed).
>
> > Recently got a good (?) deal on a brand new rackmount unit with two
> > Quantum VS80 drives installed.  Same deal, 2 week seller warranty, no
> > Quantum warranty.  Since we still had a buttload of new tapes for this
> > format, and it sold for not much more than new cleaning tapes
> > (included) go for and we needed a cleaning tape anyway,  we bought
> > it.  Figure we'd start new with both drives, one PC, one cluster so
> > the working HP drive was pulled.  All old tapes were retired and we
> > started with fresh new ones.
>
> > 31 days later, the drive on the PC side self destructed.  Ate a tape
> > (that had only been used twice before in the rotation, without
> > errors), broke and sucked the leader.  Same exact symptoms that the
> > first failed HP had.
>
> > Wondering if this is a design issue or if its simply the "Outsourced
> > production 50% failure rate in the first couple of months" QC/
> > Manufacturing issue.
>
> > So the HP drive goes back into the shiny new rackmount enclosure and
> > we hope it keeps working.  Hopefully next time we 'upgrade' backup we
> > can go to real DLT-type drives and not the 'value line'.  My DLT8000
> > at home (bought used, and using up all those used DLT4 tapes mentioned
> > above) is still going strong with no issues.
>
> > I hate VS tape drives.
>
> Do you have the latest firmware?  I don't know about the VS series,
> but DLT8000s had a very high failure rate if tapes were left in an
> unloaded state.  One of the spool motors would burn up because the drive
> would keep tension on the tape until the cartridge was removed.  I've
> swapped motors between mutliple units to get working drives.  The latest
> firmware fixed the problem, but only in standalone units; they will
> still burn up in a library if the cartridge isn't stowed.
>
> George Cook
> WVNET

Don't know on the Quantums; I didn't even think to check that.  The
HPs were updated when we first received them (there was a means to
check and update in the LTT kit).