[rescue] Quick EXB-210 questions

[Greg A. Woods]

[ On Saturday, August 25, 2001 at 15:39:46 (-0700), Robert Novak wrote: ]
> Subject: [rescue] Quick EXB-210 questions
>
> I'm pondering getting one locally, but the one I've found has no key. It's
> the longish rectangular sort (which is different from the kind I used on
> an EXB220/L400 from Sun). Are these all identical or are there different
> versions of the key? Anybody got spares or a pointer on where to look?

Who needs a key?  :-)

I didn't get a key with mine -- I just opened it from the top and
removed the locking bar from the lock.

The only trick is you have to put something opaque in the door sensor --
then when it's online it locks the door itself and so you don't really
need a key....

(The only drawback is you have to open the top and pull out the opaque
sensor block -- and remove your hand rather quickly! -- to get the door
to unlock while it's online so that you can safely change tapes, but I
do that so rarely it's not a big deal.)

> Second question is about the drives. Exabyte only sold them with the
> 7/14GB 8mm MP drives (Eliant 820 or 8505XL) and Mammoth. Does anyone know
> if they will work with AIT drives? I expect I'd stick with 8505XL for cost
> reasons, but it would be nice to have an upgrade path.

You cannot get it to work with the AIT drives.  The onboard controller
knows *WAY* too much about the drive and talks SCSI with it (and maybe
even monitors it's SCSI transactions too) to keep track of the status of
the drive.  (Never mind the tape loading issues also mentioned...)

The proper upgrade path for the EXB-210 is an Eliant-820 or Mammoth
drive.  I've put an 820 in my library and it works great.  You might
need to upgrade the firmware for a Mommoth drive though, but that's
pretty easy to do.

(Who the heck would want that junky AIT crap anyway?  It's engineered as
if a M$ designer was in control -- ultra-stupid!  STAY AWAY!)

(If you want a real backup solution though, go DLT -- but you obviously
can't load DLT's with a stock EXB-210 either, though Exabyte make one of
the very best low-end DLT libraries....  Tandberg MLR was pretty good
too, but it seems like they've killed future development in favour of
just licensing and producing DLT drives.  If I had the $$$ for DLT or
MLR I'd stay VERY FAR AWAY from any and all helical-scan technologies.)


(BTW, if anyone happens to have a spare drive mounting module for the
EXB-210, perhaps even with an 8505XL or 820 drive in it, let me know
off-list how much you'd want to be compensated if I took it off your
hands....)

-- 
							Greg A. Woods

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