Chapter 1 Introduction - Quantum Scalar 218FC User Manual

With ever changing technology, enterprise storage managers must deal with applications that are increasingly
information intensive. At the same time, they are faced with increasing storage demands and shrinking
backup windows. To meet these demands, the paradigm of storage routing is being introduced into the Data
Center. The need for faster access, distributed resources, greater bandwidth and high availability is creating a
convergence of networking and storage media. Fibre Channel technology is one of the most important
technological paradigms currently being brought to these problems.
Your ADIC Scalar 218FC Library is a fully automated, high-performance, high-capacity, mass storage
system. The Scalar 218FC provides you with unattended, near-line and off-line data storage, archiving,
backup, hierarchical storage management (HSM), and retrieval for mid-range and high-end servers and
networks.
Your Scalar 218FC Library allows direct inter-connect to the Fibre Channel network. The maximum two
DLT™ drives and library can be controlled through a single server, and can also be connected to a FC-AL
(Fibre-Channel Arbitrated Loop) interface to allow for independent control of the drives from various
workstations. Your Scalar library supports the non-OFC (multi-mode) standard for transmission lengths of up
to 500 meters. Your 218FC continues to operate using SCSI-2 compliant protocol over the Fibre Channel
interface to achieve high capacity, high throughput, and data compression by incorporating streaming tape
drives. Your library can contain up to 18 data cartridges providing a maximum formatted capacity of 1.44 TB
and a sustained data transfer rate as high as 1440 MB per minute at an average compression of 2:1 (when
equipped with two drives). The tape media, rated at up to 1,000,000 passes and a shelf life of 30 years
provides superior media durability and data reliability.
2 Introduction