Preventing tape failure

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The installation of StorSentry took place within a couple of hours, with ongoing support from Imation. The software is non-intrusive and is installed on the media servers. The tool gives an overview of the state of the drives and the media, through a detailed inventory, and provides the IT team with three grades of alerts for media problems (warning, failure and critical). Red Bee Media has configured the Imation alert system to the highest alert setting so that it takes no risk with emerging problems and has a less tolerance for failure.

The tool allows the IT team to check if cartridges have reached the pre-set age or usage limit, and the pre-set error threshold. It also gathers information on the number of mount operations, duration of use as well as read/write deterioration rate. Within these alerts are clear advice and information on how the IT manager could solve the problem. This allows the team to schedule the maintenance at a time that's convenient for the business.

In addition, StorSentry helped Red Bee Media to obtain the optimum use from its drives in terms of throughput. The software provides an accurate overview of its archive allowing the team to identify if, for example, it is only using a particular drive 10 per cent of the time. By identifying a poor throughput the team can be more productive with the same number of drives. The company can also anticipate future growth by looking at how much tape is currently being used and look at the rate at which it is growing.

Red Bee Media is also working closely with the Imation team at its European Technology Centre in Neuss, Germany on producing audit reports. These give the team an expert overview of exactly what is going on in its data centre and identifies any potential problems.

West concludes: "The installation has proved a great success. The software identifies potential problems before they occur giving us time to fix them, so we don't have to worry about whether our magnetic tapes are wearing out. We are now absolutely confident that our clients' data is safe because errors are flagged to us earlier."

"Our management team know that it is getting the best out of our investment, and the solution alleviates the pain of day-to-day performance management at an operational level. We have been using Imation's professional services consultation to further identify and reduce the risks of storing content and we have already purchased more StorSentry licences."

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