Brands?

IBM 3584 for the big boy!  Great library, but somewhat expensive.  You can work 
your dealer on price.

I like the very small IBM libraries for folks that can get by with very little 
library.

Qualstar XLS for a more cost effective big boy.  Very reliable and very good 
value.  TLS family been around a very long time and very reliable as well.  If 
footprint isn't an issue, the TSL88132 or 264 is probably the least expensive, 
highest capacity library available.

Spectralogic T950.  Great technology, not a cost leader but perhaps a bit less 
than the IBM.  The other T380 family of libraries is more cost effective and 
flexible enough for most of us.  T120 is still a workhorse and if all you'll 
need is 120 slots and six drives, perhaps the best rack mount library in the 
class.  And as Wanda suggests: it has a 10 slot I/O port.

Overland?  Not wild about that brand.

And the rest are just variants of the same OEM in many cases.

Kelly Lipp
Chief Technical Officer
www.storserver.com
719-266-8777 x7105
STORServer solves your data backup challenges. 
Once and for all.

-----Original Message-----
From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU] On Behalf Of 
Wanda Prather
Sent: Sunday, November 15, 2009 3:12 PM
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Subject: Re: [ADSM-L] tape library for TSM

And in most cases, look for a library with more than 1 I/O slot.



On Sat, Nov 14, 2009 at 2:59 PM, madunix <madunix AT gmail DOT com> wrote:

> On Sat, Nov 14, 2009 at 8:02 AM, Mehdi Salehi
> <iranian.aix.support AT gmail DOT com> wrote:
> > What are the essentials of a tape library to fully work with TSM?
> > - enough tape drives
> > - barcode reader
> > - cartridge barcode labels
> > - FC connection for LAN-free
> > ...?
> >
>
> All above!
>