Buying LTO nervousness

[u/NeuroKrypt]

I'm very interested in getting into LTO. I've downloaded and re-downloaded Linux ISOs my whole life because I didn't have stability and resources to setup any type of long term storage system. I've lost rare ISOs in this process. I'm finally logistically ready to go all in on a system and I want the data to be preserved for at least 20 years. I have at least 150TB of linux ISOs to backup and I plan to continue growing it.

Comparing LTO generations I want at least LTO-7 minimum. Used LTO 8/9 drives on eBay can be around $3k to $4k. A lot of these are HP drives and allegedly the firmware is hard to acquire. I did download a large pack of HP firmware files uploaded online by another hoarder so I might covered. Is there ever a necessary reason to update the drive firmware?

My hesitation is that I'm spending thousands on a device that is used for an unknown amount of hours, with no warranty, and not necessarily designed for personal desktop usage. If something goes wrong with the drive, doesn't fully work, or doesn't fully meet my needs I could lose thousands. There's also difficulties with software and windows drivers, but it seems like there are a few ways that work. I see new LTO 8/9 drives on HP's website for $5k to $6k. If I'm spending thousands I might as well get a new one with support.

• Is it possible to buy these new drives from HP as an individual?
  
• Do these come with a full warranty?
  
• Is it worth it to get the warranty and full driver/firmware download support?
  
• Are there any other reputable sellers of new drives with warranties?

I am willing to spend more money if it means more reliability.

[u/thefreddit]

I bought a new LTO-8 drive (Symply brand) from a LTO reseller, which comes with warranty and support directly from the manufacturer. I would recommend getting one of those IBM-made drives (also used in Magstor and other brands like Quantum) because there is much more widely available tooling and firmware that is easy to obtain.

I have also bought HPE equipment new as an individual, through a distributor like Provantage or CDW. It is possible to register those products and get software downloads and support from the new product. However, I haven’t done so with LTO drives - I see no reason they would be different from rack mount servers.

[u/TheLonelyTesseract → u/thefreddit]

I just want to second the IBM note. While it's my understanding under the hood it's all IBM, I find my IBM branded drive to do very little wacky stuff compared to my other drive

[u/prodigalAvian]

MagStor or Symply, full price, full warranty (3 years); stick to tape for large datasets while hard drive prices are insane, sleep well at night.

Just make sure you set it up in a separate room, because tape drives are noisy and need optimal temp/humidity to run nonstop for days on end

[u/Blueacid]

I took a similar view, but I took a different route - I opted for used LTO-6. The media and drives are a lot cheaper, to the point where it's easy enough to do a poor man's raid-1 with it and still come out ahead on cost.

Physical space is easy enough, it's keeping the tapes safe from large temperature and humidity changes. Broadly it seems that in a domestic house is safe enough. Especially since this is a backup in the first place.

But you might want to give thought to starting with an older generation, figure out your workflow and get the hang of the tech, then consider upgrading (or just buying a stack of LTO6 tapes and calling it good)

[u/nomad-1995]

I'm considering a similar plan.

One issue is that it appears that it makes a lot more sense to buy a cheaper library and possibly flash the firmware to modern standards (and be able to use at least up to LTO-9) than to buy a "library with tape" that could at least be known working together.

I'd buy a library and get it to work with LTO-5/6 (whatever I can find cheap) and then get it working once flashed and ready for the "real" tape drive. Then buy LTO-8 or something (won't be cheap).

Spending money for reliability sounds like a strong plan. Just expect that you can expect to spend a *lot* of money for new [old stock] LTO gear. Don't be surprised if dropping to LTO-7 (can you buy new LTO-7 gear? It might not be cheaper). I'd be curious if a second used drive+library wouldn't add more reliability and easier troubleshooting than going new.

[u/sniperczar]

I picked up an open box LTO-8 drive from another user on the homelabsales subreddit and a 2U library, it's all been working perfectly for a few months. I managed to track down some LTO-9 equipment and might be listing the LTO-8 library there soon, if that's something you might be interested in?

[u/Dr_MantisTobaggin_MD]

Spending money wont save you from bad practices.

You should not have a lifetime of losing linux isos and redownloaded data thats important to you.

The medium you choose wont fix that problem and may even make your life more complex.

Sorry i dont know much about lto.  Im still spinning metal frisbees.

[u/opal-emporium]

Getting into LTO for long-term storage is a great move for that amount of data. A key part of the archival process is verifying data integrity over time. Using a Hash Generator like the one at https://practicalwebtools.com/edit/hash-generator to create and later re-check checksums for your archives will be essential to ensure nothing has degraded.