Full Height (FH) FibreChannel LTO 8 Tape Drive for IBM TS4500 Tape Library

[americanfuzzylop]

Long time lurker; first time posting.

eBay

The listing price is $1250 and the seller accepted my offer of $750. Condition is supposed to be "open box" and the anti-ESD packaging seems to have never been opened. The anti-shock packaging also seems intact. Other sellers are pricing used items of the same model at $2500+ and new items $3500+. Not a bad deal imo.

The model number is 3588-F8C. It a field-replaceable unit designed for IBM TS4500 (LTO tape drives). I have absolutely no plan to acquire a TS4500 (although there is a recycler in Canada selling it for $600) due to the size. But, the FRU appears to be the combo of a generic drive and a sliding enclosure. My plan is to decouple the two and install the drive into an exclosure meant for standalone use – something like the enclosure of MagStor LTO9 FH 8G FC External Desktop Tape Drive 18TB LTFS , FC-FL9-PRO LTO-9 TAA. It is a bit less than ideal that the drive uses FibreChannel and is full height, two traits that are rare on external drives, so I except that I will have to wait a long time for a cheap enclosure (or a broken unit from which I can harvest the enclosure) to show up. There is an encouraging example on reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/s/C0TKWAAeAV

A backup plan is to install the drive in a standard dual 5.25" bay like this person on r/DataHoarder did. I do worry about cooling (or noise, pick your poison) and dust in such a set up. With a standalone setup, I can at least turn the unit on only when I am using it, which is what I do with my standalone SAS LTO 6 drive.

Another idea I had was to look for a short-depth rack-mounted tape library/autoloader and a compatible sliding enclosure, and install the drive there. But the shortest tape library I can find is at 29" and is a bit too long for my 24" rack. (I live in an apartment.)

Hope more people will find the deal useful!

 

[ribroc]

Deal confirmed, offer accepted at 750.

I am silently betting that this is going to be one of those a headaches that sits on a "project shelf", but at this price that's probably still worth it to me, we're going into winter anyway, tinkering season.

But the shortest tape library I can find is at 29" and is a bit too long for my 24" rack. (I live in an apartment.)

On the consumer end, I'd suggest something like the fractal define node 304, as a fairly small, modifiable case with a bit of bodywork. Plenty of room for any PSU or fan controller shenanigans, and enough airflow mounting options to cool one of these without much trouble..

 

[americanfuzzylop]

I am silently betting that this is going to be one of those a headaches that sits on a "project shelf", but at this price that's probably still worth it to me, we're going into winter anyway, tinkering season.

Yes this is my feeling as well. (Looking at the pile of motherboards and exotic PCIe cards I hoard.)

On the consumer end, I'd suggest something like the fractal define node 304 as a fairly small, modifiable case. Plenty of room for any PSU or fan controller shenanigans, and enough airflow mounting options to cool one of these without much trouble..

Interesting!

I am still wishing for a tape library that accepts full-height drive and is short enough to fit in my rack but the chance is slim.

 

[nihonjin]

Anyone know if this drive will work with TS3100 libraries? (with the adequate adapter)

 

[mtg]

Anyone know if this drive will work with TS3100 libraries? (with the adequate adapter)

IBM only seems to mention the TS4500 as a compatible library.

I bought one, by far the cheapest LTO 8 drive for sale. Will hopefully not be awful to use standalone...

Are FH drives 2 5.25 slots or 3?

 

[nihonjin]

I know, but asking because the TS3100 has in supported drives a lto-8 half sized drive.

 

[reasonsandreasons]

For what it's worth, I'm running a LTO5 drive in my Fractal Design Define R5 as described by those Reddit users. Notes in case they're helpful:

• The LTO5 FC drives lack the shutter on the tape slot, so the drive's always hanging open. I've even seen drives that are missing the front plate entirely. The Define R5 has a front door that covers this, but beside that there's nothing protecting the inside from the elements. Keep this in mind.
• I have a 80mm fan stuck to the back of the drive where the metal enclosure is open. This works well to cool it.
• My drive takes up two 5.25" bays. Keep in mind that some cases have little shelves designed to make it easier to rack up multiple single-bay devices. These don't play nicely with those, so you may have to bend them out of the way.
• I paid for Retrospect for a few years to do backups but recently switched to tar and mbuffer. Do that, it's nicer. I'm happy to elaborate if it would be helpful.
• FC is nice because your drive doesn't actually need to be in the same case as your backup host. I'm using a older Qlogic card that doesn't support ASPM, so I've put it in my backup system and run fiber from that box to my main server. I boot the backup system when I need to and leave it off when I don't.

 

[mtg]

For what it's worth, I'm running a LTO5 drive in my Fractal Design Define R5 as described by those Reddit users. Notes in case they're helpful:

• The LTO5 FC drives lack the shutter on the tape slot, so the drive's always hanging open. I've even seen drives that are missing the front plate entirely. The Define R5 has a front door that covers this, but beside that there's nothing protecting the inside from the elements. Keep this in mind.
• I have a 80mm fan stuck to the back of the drive where the metal enclosure is open. This works well to cool it.
• My drive takes up two 5.25" bays. Keep in mind that some cases have little shelves designed to make it easier to rack up multiple single-bay devices. These don't play nicely with those, so you may have to bend them out of the way.
• I paid for Retrospect for a few years to do backups but recently switched to tar and mbuffer. Do that, it's nicer. I'm happy to elaborate if it would be helpful.
• FC is nice because your drive doesn't actually need to be in the same case as your backup host. I'm using a older Qlogic card that doesn't support ASPM, so I've put it in my backup system and run fiber from that box to my main server. I boot the backup system when I need to and leave it off when I don't.

Did you have to do anything special to get the drive to come up? Apparently they can be in library or standalone mode?

 

[reasonsandreasons]

Nope, it came up without my changing anything.

Depending on your operating system you may need to deal with loading the target driver instead of the initiator one for your HBA (TrueNAS Scale has this problem, at least with Qlogic cards), but that's straightforward.

 

[lte]

I know, but asking because the TS3100 has in supported drives a lto-8 half sized drive.

If you have flashed your IBM to BDT firmware, then there is a good chance, it will work. On stock IBM its quite unlikely (but would love to hear your experience)