Timothy
Parker Consulting Incorporated
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Benchmark Tape Systems DLT-1 A couple of issues ago we looked at
Benchmark’s DLT-7 autoloader DLT tape system, a cost-effective autoloading
system for network-wide backups. The
cost of the autoloader, while competitive, is still more than most people want
to pay for a tape backup solution. Benchmark
has met that requirements with the DLT-1, a single DLT backup unit with an
excellent (for DLT) price. The DLT-1 is a squarish box with a
standard DLT (Digital Linear Tape) unit built into the front. The front panel has the loading slot, an eject button, and
some status lights. The back panel has two SCSI-2 connectors, a SCSI ID
selector, and a power switch. We tested the external unit, although internal
models are also available. Both Wide and UltraWide SCSI are supported, as is
Differential SCSI. Connecting the DLT-1 is trivial (set a SCSI ID and connect
the cable), and our backup software automatically recognized the drive as a DLT.
Drivers are available for most operating systems, including several
flavours of Linux. We tested under
SuSE 7.1, RedHat 6.2, and Windows 2000 with no problems. The DLT-1 uses the newer DLT Tape IV
format, and is backwards compatible with the DLT 4000 standard.
The new IV format allows 40GB native, and 80GB compressed capacity on a
single DLT cartridge. Inserting and ejecting cartridges is simple, with a slight
delay while the tape is prepared with each operation.
The drive operation is mostly quiet, although there is a slight bit of
tape winding noise in rewind mode. The
fan on the DLT-1 is very quiet and doesn’t add to system noise. We tested the DLT-1 in several sessions,
mostly by backing up a native drive with 250GB of video data loaded.
We also used it to back up network devices over a 100Mbps Fast Ethernet
network. Benchmark claims a
transfer rate of 3MB/sec native (6MB/sec compressed) for the unit, which is not
blazingly fast for state-of-the-art tape backup units.
Some tape systems can manage twice that transfer rate.
On the other hand, they also cost a lot more! We
measured average transfer rates of about 2.1MB/sec on our native backup
(4.2MB/sec compressed), and a little slower on network backups, but these are
still respectable numbers. The drive worked flawlessly in two months of testing,
performing automated backups every night. Sure,
we had to manually change the cartridge every night (the autoloading DLT-7
required only weekly changes but at four times the price), but this is normal
practice anyway. The major selling point for the DLT-1 is the price, as Benchmark positions the DLT-1 with a street price around $1,500. That’s very low for a DLT tape subsystem, as most cost at least double that amount. It is also very competitive with other systems such as Ecrix ECX and Sony AIT drives, which both offer either lower capacities or slower backup speeds. Since DLT is quickly becoming the defacto standard for high-capacity backups, the DLT-1 is attractive because of its price. The DLT-1 can be highly recommended for any system that needs DLT backup capabilities, except those setups that need the fastest possible backup method. DLT-1 Summary: DLT at a fraction of DLT’s cost. A little slow compared to some DLTs, but a heck of a lot cheaper than the fast units! |
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