On Wed, 2003-07-09 at 00:28, Brendan J Simon wrote:
> Can anyone recommend a good solid SCSI card that works with Linux and
> tape backaups.
I don't have powerpc hardware (yet) so I can only speak on my x86 + scsi
experiences (note e-double's recent issues!)... We almost exclusively
use Adaptec scsi controllers in our Linux/OpenBSD boxen. I have had
good luck with various models from 1542s through recent 7xxx both
on-board and add-on controllers. I can't say I've had any bad
experiences with adaptec controllers - certainly not recently.
As for tape drives, we mainly use Ecrix VXA with good results. We have
3 drives in house and a bunch with clients in the field. My experiences
with DAT were acceptable but I do prefer VXA.
We have only used single-drive units to date. I have not used robots or
the rack-pack thingy although I can forsee a need down the road.
> Is there any advantage to going to an external drive (besides
> portability of the device).
for me it's mainly portability. I can move the drive to another system
if necessary. Note that I generally do not move drives around and the
extra power cord and large, oddly-shaped case can be a PITA or at least
add to the rat nest of cabling. For clients we recommend internal
drives to keep things neat.
If you're cool with external, you may consider the firewire VXA drive.
I haven't used one yet but am considering it for our next client.
good luck,
-joe
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