Storage and Backup

84TB in 4U with 2TB Disk Drives

2009-09-09T09:21:00.000-07:00

NexSAN has done it again. Density, density and greater density! 84TB in 4U?

This is indeed the case now that the NexSAN SATABeast and SATAbeastXi can be populated with the new 2TB SATA disk drives.

If you are looking for a solution that has absolute density, look no further as once again this Green RAID solution is absolutely unique and with thousands of units in the field this tested solution will certainly not disappoint you.

Interested in the SATABeast. Contact us at Sunstar Co.
info@sunstarco.com 800.663.5523
Gavin
www.sunstarco.com

De-Duplication - a new player in towm

2009-09-09T09:02:00.000-07:00

Until now there have been just a few players in the de-duplication market that have the bulk of the market share. Well there is a new player in the market that has better performance, greater density and cost significantly less than the established competition.

NexSAN's DeDupeSG is a turn-key de-duplication solution with:
Fast write to disk cache
Independent high speed RAID system
Block level deduplication
NAS base system
Replication with global dedupe and yes it is a Green Storage solution.

DeDupe SG delivers performance that is 20% to 100% faster than competitive vendors by combining the latest high speed CPU processing technology with Nexsan’s high speed RAID subsystem. Not only is it faster, DeDupe SG is smarter by first writing and storing backups on its high speed disk cache (deduping at a later time or concurrently) so that backup tasks are completed in a fraction of the time.

NexSAN is not doing this alone. The SATABoy and SATABeast solutions are certainly proven and now with FalconStor software solution, this integrated product is bound to be a winner!

Please feel free to call Sunstar Company at any time:
info@sunstarco.com or 800-663.5523
Many Thanks
Gavin
www.sunstarco.com

Sunstar at work

2009-03-25T10:00:00.001-07:00

Even though the USA is experiencing a depression, corporations still are purchasing storage. The data continues to grow and we at Sunstar Company are seeing from our clients a need for even large capacity appliances.

Recently we sold a SASBeast from NexSAN Technologies for a large database. With 42 SAS drives spinning at 15,000 RPMS this is one heck of a unit. I am told by the network administrator that the SASBeast is unbelievable fast and although it does not have as much data as their existing SATABeast it is performing beyond their expectations.

We at Sunstar Company continue to offer an excellent selection of storage solutions and we we would very much like to help you select your next RAID storage solution.

Many Thanks
Gavin
info@sunstarco.com
800.663.5523

NexSAN Promotions

2009-01-26T09:33:00.001-08:00

NexSAN Technologies recently announced the following promotion:

Buy 2, Get 1 FREE
Buy 2 SAS drives, get the next one FREE on SASBoy and SASBeast products. Purchase orders must be received by March 16, 2009. Get the performance you need and capacity you want to meet the broadest range of storage requirements.
Offer is good on 300GB and 450GB SAS drives for SASBoy and SASBeast products in both single and dual controller configurations at exclusive pricing. Offer good on ANY SIZE SYSTEM (not just fully loaded).

NBD Onsite Support Dollar Deal
Purchase a SAS/SATABoy or SAS/SATABeast with a minimum of 14 drives and receive one year of Next Business Day onsite support service for $1. Purchase orders must be received by March 16, 2009.
Offer is good on single or dual controller SAS/SATABoy or SAS/SATABeast with a minimum of 14 drives at exclusive pricing. Purchase orders must be received by March 16, 2009.

If this entices you to purchase a NexSAN storage Solution, please do contact us at Sunstar Company.

info@sunstarco.com (800) 663-5523

Gavin

Sun StorageTek T10000B Tape Drive

2009-01-26T09:25:00.001-08:00

The new T10000B tape drive from Sun StorageTek.
Features:
1 TB native capacity and 120 MB/sec throughput drive datacenter efficiencies
Protects your investment with T10000 media re-use and broad compatibility
Supports demanding 24x7 business operations, minimizing risk
Enhances security and ensures data protection

Sunstar Company on occasion has these drives in stock.
Contact us for all your Sun Storagetek tape requirements.

800.663.5523 info@sunstarco.com

Tandem 9840 and 9940 Tape Drives

2009-01-16T10:06:00.000-08:00

At Sunstar company we carry and support Tandem 9840 and 9940 tape drives.

The following models are available:
TANDEM CT9840-1
TANDEM CT9840-2
TANDEM CT9840-3
TANDEM CT9840-4
UNISYS CTS9840

Let us know if we can be of assistance. 800.663.5523
info@sunstarco.com

Thanks
Gavin

MaxOptix Magneto Optical Drive

2009-01-16T09:46:00.000-08:00

Sunstar Company stocks the following MaxOptix optical drives

MaxOptix T7-9100 9.1GB Internal MO Drive, 8MB Cache, 5.25" HH

MaxOptix T8-BT23 23.3GB Internal BL Drive, 16MB Cache, 5.25" HH

MaxOptix TMT8-BT23 23.3GB External BL Drive, 16MB Cache, 5.25" HH

MaxOptix T7-9100 9.1GB Internal MO Drive, 8MB Cache, 5.25" HH

MaxOptix TMT7-9100 9.1GB External MO Drive, 8MB Cache, 5.25" HH

MaxOptix Star T6-5200 5.2GB Ultra SCSI Turbocache

MaxOptix Star T5-2600 2.6GB Ultra SCSI

Choice of 2.6GB, 5.2GB, 9.1GB and 23GB magneto optical drives.

Do let us know if we can be of assistance.

800.663.5523 info@sunstarco.com

Thanks
Gavin

Sony Magneto Optical Drives

2009-01-16T09:39:00.000-08:00

Sunstar Company stocks the following Sony Magneto Optical Drives:

SMO-F561/S 9.1GB 5¼" MO Internal Kit
RMO-S561 9.1GB 5¼" MO External Kit
SMO-F551/S 5.2GB 5¼" MO Internal Kit
RMO-S551/D 5.2GB 5¼" MO External Kit

These drives are utilized by numerous manufacturers, including IBM, HP and Plasmon.
If you have a need for one of these drives, please do contact us.
800.663.5523 info@sunstarco.com
Many Thanks
Gavin

Storage and Backup for 2009

2009-01-09T09:47:00.000-08:00

Storage needs continue to grown and like other industries in the USA, there has been a slowdown. Will this continue. Personally I doubt that the larger companies will hold back for to much longer. The CTO will be demanding money as they have no choice to replace legacy hardware (out of warranty) will new faster, larger capacity and certainly more reliable solutions.

Sunstar Company is a player in this market and will continue to support the needs of our present and future customers.

For so many companies, their data is their product or solution so they must maintain it's integrity. No one wants to loose their data.

Data will continue to grow and we need to back it up, via tape, replication etc.

Sunstar is always available for a free consultation

Contact us: info@sunstarco.com 800.663.5523
Many Thanks
Gavin

Tiered Storage

2008-12-11T10:20:00.000-08:00

Sunstar company would like to make you aware that we can carry a line of storage that supports both SATA and SAS drives within the same chassis.

NexSAN recently released Tiered Storage in both their 14 Bay and 42 Bay chassis. Many of our clinets see absolute value in tiering their storage. In the recent past they had no option but to add another shelf of storage. This is no longer the case. NexSAN has thoroughly tested their solutions with 15K and 7.2K disk drives and they run just fine. Speed and heat is not an issue.
Consider adding a second controller within the chassis supporting mixed drives and your performance will jump.

For additional information contact us directly: 800.663.5523 info@sunstarco.com
Thank You
Gavin

Tape Speed and Capacity comparrison

2008-12-11T09:56:00.000-08:00

There are many manufacturers and models of new and existing tape drives and sometimes it is much easier to make a decision or solve a naging questions when you see the data, simplified in a format that you can easily read.

Well we at Sunstar have done just that.

The msot common drives are listed on a specific page on our web site. Just follow the link below and you will be amazed how fast you will find the drive and manufacturer in question.
Drive Comparison Chart
We inventory (where possible) and support these drives.
If you have addition questions - contact us directly.
800.663.5233 info@sunstarco.com

Many Thanks
Sunstar Compnay, Inc.
Inglewood, Ca

Sun StorageTke Tape Drives

2008-12-11T09:40:00.000-08:00

Sunstar Company supports the following Sun StorageTek tape drives. We carry a significant inventory of drives for stand alone purposes or for an existing tape library. Units are available with the appropriate shelves. Models available:

STORAGETEK T9840A ULTRA SCSI, ESCON, FIBRE CHANNEL 20GB Native, Transfer Rate 10MB/sec

STORAGETEK T9840B FICON, ESCON, FIBRE CHANNEL 20GB Native, Transfer Rate 19MB/sec

STORAGETEK T9840C FICON, ESCON, FIBRE CHANNEL 20GB Native, Transfer Rate 30MB/sec

STORAGETEK T9840D FICON, ESCON, FIBRE CHANNEL 75GB Native, Transfer Rate 16.5MB/sec

STORAGETEK T9940A ULTRA SCSI, ESCON, FIBRE CHANNEL 60GB Native, Transfer Rate 10MB/sec

STORAGETEK T9940B FICON, ESCON, FIBRE CHANNEL 200GB Native, Transfer Rate 30MB/sec

STORAGETEK T10000 FICON, FIBRE CHANNEL 500GB Native, Transfer Rate 120MB/sec

STORAGETEK T10000B FICON, FIBRE CHANNEL 1TGB Native, Transfer Rate 120MB/sec

Please do contact us and we will gladly answer all your questions.
800.663.5523 or info@sunstarco.com
Gavin

Tandem 5285ACL

2008-12-02T08:43:00.000-08:00

Sunstar Company will will receiving a shipment o a number of Compaq Tandem 5285ACL. These are rare to find and will not last long.

The 5285ACL tape drive is a high performance, high capacity, streaming cartridge tape product designed for use on midrange and high-end computing systems. The 5285ACL tape drive features 10 cartridges, with 1.1 TB of native storage capacity (2.2 TB compressed), and transfer speeds of 11 MB/second.

If you have an interest in these units, please call us at 800.663.523

NexSAN Storage offered by Sunstar Company

2008-12-02T08:22:00.000-08:00

Sunstar Company would like to make you aware that we offer the following NexSAN Technologies storage solutions.

All units are available with a choice of single or dual controllers, redundant power supplies, fans and offer significant energy savings.
AutoMAID™ allows NexSAN storage to place its disk drives to an idle state to conserve energy yet provide near-instantaneous access to data.

SATABeast Up to 42TB in a single chassis, SATA Drives
42 Bay, 4U, Fibre Channel & iSCSI to host

SASBeast Up to 12.6TB in a single chassis, SAS Drives
42 Bay, 4U, Fibre Channel & iSCSI to host

Tiered Storage - Mix of SAS & SATA Drives
42 Bay, 4U, Fibre Channel & iSCSI to host

SATABeast Xi Up to 42TB in a single chassis Mac environments SATA Drives
42 Bay, 4U, Fibre Channel & iSCSI to host

SATABoy Up to 14TB in a single chassis, SATA Drives
14 Bay, 3U, Fibre Channel & iSCSI to host

SASBoy Up to 4.2TB in a single chassis, SAS Drives
14 Bay, 3U, Fibre Channel & iSCSI to host

SATABoy (STH) Up to 14TB in a single chassis, SATA Drives
14 Bay, 3U, SAS & iSCSI to host

SASBoy (STH) Up to 4.2TB in a single chassis, SATA Drives
14 Bay, 3U, SAS & iSCSI to host

DATABeast Highly managed solution that can grow to several Petabytes - SAS & SATA Drives
Scalable SATA/SAS solution in a high density, low profile form factor

To learn more about NexSAN storage, please do contact us a Sunstar.
800.663.5523 or info@sunstarco.com

Thank You
Gavin

Management of fixed content

2008-11-14T09:01:00.000-08:00

NexSAN's Assureon has been designed to to address the long term storage and management of fixed content and compliance information. Sunstar Company would like to introduce the Assureon to you and your company.

The Assureon does the following:

Compliant-level privacy, integrity and longevity
Self-auditing, self-healing file management technology
Enterprise class manageability, scalability and energy efficiency
Affordable: enterprise class archive to meet your needs at a price to meet your budget

Most storage systems provide you "hope" - hope about your data privacy, integrity and longevity. But there is some data that demands guarantees.Can you guarantee a file. . . has not been tampered with? is safe from prying eyes? is not corrupted over time?

Nexsan’s Assureon online disk storage archive provides the privacy, integrity and longevity of a digital safe deposit box with the high speed access of disk drive technology. Assureon assures Privacy Assureon ensures the privacy of data with innovative security features
Data Separation and Security

Every user or department can have their files in their own virtual safe deposit box. Assureon establishes an unalterable audit trail for the life of an archived file. Every time a file is accessed, a record is kept of who accessed it and when it was accessed. Assureon ensures the integrity of data with next generation self-auditing and self-healing technology.

In a new world of regulatory compliance, you need to guarantee the retention and deletion of files. With automated integrity management and file immutability technology, Assureon protects against accidental or unauthorized file deletion and ensures you can retain files for compliant or flexible time periods as well as delete them when their retention period is over.

Ideal Markets
Healthcare, Banking, Brokerage, Law, Compliance Officers, Legal Counsel etc.

Do contact us at info@sunstarco.com or call us 800.663.5523 if you would like to learn more about the NexSAN Assureon.
Gavin

NexSAN SATA and SAS Storage Solutions

2008-11-10T08:24:00.000-08:00

Sunstar Company continues top promote the NexSAN SATA and SAS storage solutions as we have found over the years that the performance, quality, reliability, support, functionality and pricing offered by NexSAN overshadows all the competitors in this tier.

NexSAN Technologies has expanded its line of storage solution over the last couple of months, and there is more to follow.

Let's look at the line:

3U Chassis supporting a choice of 14 SATA or SAS drives
SATABoy Up to 14TB in a single chassis, SATA Drives - 14 Bay, 3U, Fibre Channel & iSCSI to host, - Single or Dual controller, active - active, AutoMaid - Green Technology
SASBoy Up to 4.2TB in a single chassis, SAS Drives - 14 Bay, 3U, Fibre Channel & iSCSI to host, - Single or Dual controller, active - active, AutoMaid - Green Technology
SATABoy(STH) Up to 14TB in a single chassis, SATA Drives - 14 Bay, 3U, SAS & iSCSI to host - Single or Dual controller, active - active, AutoMaid - Green Technology
SASBoy(STH) Up to 4.2TB in a single chassis, SAS Drives - 14 Bay, 3U, SAS & iSCSI to host - Single or Dual controller, active - active, AutoMaid - Green Technology

4U Chassis supporting a choice of 42 SATA or SAS drives
SATABeast Up to 42TB in a single chassis, SATA Drives - 42 Bay, 4U, Fibre Channel & iSCSI to host - Single or Dual controller, active - active, AutoMaid - Green Technology
SASBeast Up to 12.6TB in a single chassis, SAS Drives - 42 Bay, 4U, Fibre Channel & iSCSI to host - Single or Dual controller, active - active, AutoMaid - Green Technology
Tiered Storage - Mix of SAS & SATA Drives - 42 Bay, 4U, Fibre Channel & iSCSI to host - Single or Dual controller, active - active, AutoMaid - Green Technology
SATABeast Xi Up to 42TB in a single chassis Mac environments SATA Drives - 42 Bay, 4U, Fibre Channel & iSCSI to host - Single or Dual controller, active - active, AutoMaid - Green Technology

Network Attached Storage
The Edge - NAS for SMB, FC connected RAID storage, capacity and density - up to 84TB, Green Storage - Consolidates file and block into a single solution with CIFS, NFS and iSCSI
The Big One - grow with new or existing NexSAN Storage to several Petabytes - secure and highly managed

DATABeast Highly managed solution that can grow to several Petabytes - SAS & SATA Drives - Scalable SATA/SAS solution in a high density, low profile form factor

Assureon - Secure Storage. Encryption, Compliance, De-Duplication, Archiving, e-Discovery.

Green Storage - Intelligent, disk-based archiving appliances - complete hardware/software systems that give users powerful and cost-effective choices for the protection, retention and long term care of their information assets

If you have a need or an interest in purchasing some additional RAID storage, please contact us at Sunstar Company. info@sunstarco.com or (800) 663.5523
Gavin
http://www.sunstarco.com/

Quantum Scalar 50 and Scalar 500 Tape Libraries

2008-11-03T10:00:00.000-08:00

Scalable, Simple to Operate and Easy to Service are some of the features that drive many companies to purchase tape libraries from Quantum.

Today I am going to focus on two of their libraries in particular.
The Scalar 50 and the Scalar i500

The Scalar 50 start with 38 slots and scale up to 76 slots. The user-friendly interface enables simple installation, operation and maintenance. Functionality, includes partitioning, multiple drive type support and connectivity choices: SCSI, iSCSI, SAS and Fibre Channel all from Quantum. The scalar 50 supports the following tape drives: LTO-4, DLT-S4, LTO-3, or LTO-3HH. Bottom line Quantum has released a great library and for the most part this unit will support most small to medium sized companies for some time to come.

The Scalar i500 like the scalar 50 was originally engineered by Adic and once again we have a hit. The Scalar i500 combines modular design with continuous robotics to provide industry-leading scalability, performance, and reliability. Supporting up to 18 LTO tape drives, starting with 36 slots and the ability to grow to 400 slots this modular library has the potential to support enterprise corporations. Standard warranty is for one year with uplifts available.

If you would like to learn more about these libraries do contact info@sunsatrco.com or call (800) 663-5523 for immediate help.

Many Thanks

Gavin
www.sunstarco.com

Healthcare - Archiving your data

2008-10-22T11:52:00.000-07:00

NexSAN's Assureon has been designed to to address the long term storage and management of fixed content and compliance information. For the medical industry, this is good news. The PACS just keep growing and we know we can't go back to the "old" hard copy that we used for decades.

The biggest problems faced by this medical market are compliance and yes the files tend to grow significantly and there is an associated cost as these images need to be kept for a predetermined period of time.

The NexSAN Assureon can be your savior.

The NexSAN Assureon is fast, manages itself, self auditing and healing, is very reliable, is secure, offers longevity, easy to grow and is very simple to own and use.

Nexsan Assureon adds value in many different ways:

Securely archives PACS images to meet long-term retention policies
Meets mandatory HIPAA requirements
WORM storage ensures image immutability
Continual auditing to ensure image integrity and authenticity
Provides audit trail of user access
Archived images can be encrypted to ensure patient security and privacy
At the end of an image’s retention period, either the retention period can be extended or the images can be permanently deleted
Provides local or remote replication for Business Continuity
In remote replication: when primary site is down, applications transparently fail over to secondary site.
When primary site is back up and active, Assureon’s automatic self-healing replication re-synchronizes the two sites.
Solution in place for satellite offices, local or worldwide.

This is not the easiest solution to explain in written words. Basically it will adapt to your environment.

Assureon has been certified or is compatible with:
PACS Certified: GE, AGFA, Plasmon.
PACS Certification in process: Siemens, Cerner and McKesson

Bottom line it works and is significantly less expensive than the competition and offers additional features.

Please contact me at Sunstar Company and rather quickly we can determine if the Assureon is a match.

Gavin@sunstarco.com 800.663.5523

Thanks

Gavin
www.sunstarco.com

42TB in a single chassis

2008-10-14T12:54:00.001-07:00

Sunstar Company is proud to introduce to you the NexSAN SATABeast. No just like any other SAN, the SATABeast will save you money.

Interested in going green, save power.

The SATABeast employs Nexsan's revolutionary AutoMAID™ energy saving technology. AutoMAID transparently places SATABeast disk drives in an idle state reducing power consumption and operational costs. AutoMAID delivers the cost-saving benefits of MAID (Massive Array of Idle Disks) without the limitations of slow access times and special host software. Nexsan's AutoMAID is granular to an individual drive or RAID set and enables users to determine the level of access speed and energy savings desired. AutoMAID is the first MAID architecture that supports VTL (Virtual Tape Libraries), full file format D2D and standard RAID implementations.

NexSAN's award-winning Performance SATAT RAID controller architecture utilizes dual RAID engines on each SATABeast controller to provide extremely high throughput performance across 42 spindles. SATABeast's 42 high capacity drives can be segmented into multiple RAID sets or a single large storage pool. LUN Mapping allows users to easily configure the massive disk capacity for dozens of servers or one.

Highest storage density in the industry - up to 42 TB in only 4U
NexSAN's revolutionary AutoMAID™ energy saving technology greatly reduces power consumption and operating costs.
Full Enterprise class performance and reliability
Dual function Fibre Channel and iSCSI connectivity with wire-speed performance. Flexible, scalable and completely OS independent, SATABeast easily supports a broad range of storage infrastructures.
High performance – over 700 MB/s sustained throughput
Integrated Fibre Channel and iSCSI connectivity for flexible implementation
Reduced energy consumption and costs through AutoMAID™ technology.
All active components are redundant and individually hot-swappable
Highest density per rack inch
Completely OS independent. No special software drivers or server-based management applications required.
Supports RAID 0, 1, 1+0, 4, 5 and 6 & supports multiple RAID sets and multiple volumes per set.
Up to 2GB cache per controller and supports up to 32 LUNS per controller.
Online SATABeast delivers access to data up to 500 times faster than tape libraries and 20x faster than other MAID systems.
Embedded web-browsable GUI over 10/100/1000 port, supports email alerts and SNMP traps
Horizontal midplane design promotes superior airflow and alleviates insertion stress points
Anti-Accumulative Rotational Vibration design enables maximum drive reliability.
WorldView™ - Provides ability to manage and configure multiple Nexsan units from a single GUI
Warranty - three years
Reliable - YES

Looking for more than 42TB, look at the DataBeast, in essence, multiple SATABeasts and more.

More spped, well the SASBeast (not confirmed) is not yet on the market, consider the NexSAN SASBoy, very similar to the 14 drive SATABoy , however SAS drives and very fast.

Interested, contact me at Sunstar. (800) 663.5523 or info@sunstarco.com

Cheers

Gavin

iSCSI Storage here to stay

2008-10-06T11:04:00.000-07:00

It's easy to install - almost as fast as Fibre attached storage and yes reliable. So why not purchase an iSCSI SAN?

Actually many companies are going the iSCSI root, however it is not the ideal solution for all. If you need very fast storage and are working with large databases - perhaps it will be best to stay with Fibre attached storage. Not all vendors agree and some vehemently state - "ours is fast enough". This might indeed be the case, however most primary storage in enterprise accounts tend to stick with a particular manufacturer and Fibre has worked in the past so why not continue.

We at Sunstar Company do recommend iSCSI Attached Storage for many many of our clients. For the most part they are easy to install, reliable and yes fast. Most manufacturers that do offer an iSCSi solution have in the past paired the unit with SATA drives, thus good but not great performance. Now with the new SAS drives, we are looking at a higher performing solution.

We tend to offer the following solutions when we have a client looking to purchase iSCSI:

NexSAN - Their line of storage supports a choice of Fibre and iSCSI ports or SAS and iSCSI ports. In conjunction with The Edge that SATABeast or SATABoy will now supports NAS with a choice of SATA or SAS drives.
iQstor - iSCSI storage with software functionality, choice of Fibre or SATA drives.
RELDATA - iSCSI Gateway (use your existing storage) or purchase the head with storage. iSCSI - add NAS, replication and more.
Arena- basic box - add drives and you are ready to go.
StoreVault from NetApp - Twelve drive solution - SATA drives - NAS options and software.

All these manufacturers support iSCSI and you have a choice when connecting to your network. Download the Microsoft iSCSI drive (free) and install or purchase a TOE [network interface cards with TCP/IP offload engines] . Not absolutly necessary - however some folks tend to think that they do offer an advantage. Personally I have not see too much of a diiference in performance.

info@sunstarco.com (800) 663-5523

Thank You

Gavin

NAS with your existing Storage

2008-10-03T08:32:00.001-07:00

So you have an existing SAN with excess storage or perhaps you need to look at some of the capacity as file based rather than block.

Sure you can purchase a new NAS with some storage. An alternative is to carve up some of your existing storage with the help of a RELDATA NAS Gateway.

Highly scalable, Clusterable and High Availability

By leveraging industry-standard Fibre Channel, SCSI, SAS or iSCSI storage arrays, the RELDATA 9240-enabled IP storage systems provide the performance and throughput of more expensive Fibre Channel or enterprise NAS solutions at a much lower cost.

Its modular architecture lets organizations easily expand block and file-based storage capacity to meet demand, seamlessly consolidate underused storage assets, and ensure availability of data.

RELDATA Unified Storage Gateways feature vendor-agnostic storage resource interoperability and consolidation. They offer:

Interoperability with industry-standard Fibre Channel, SCSI, SAS and iSCSI disk and tape storage resources
Certification with disk arrays and tape libraries of leading storage vendors
Software RAID levels 1, 4, 5 and 6
Ability to use simple JBOD arrays for storage consolidation or expansion
Seamless extension of existing Fibre Channel SAN
Active-passive failover and load balancing features
Unified SAN & NAS Storage Provisioning over IP

RELDATA solutions deliver scalable truly parallel iSCSI SAN and NAS storage from a single pool of shared storage. In today’s heterogeneous Windows, Linux or Unix environments, the RELDATA Universal IP Storage Gateways provide:

Dedicated block-level iSCSI target volumes, or CIFS and NFS file systems
Centrally managed virtualized storage volume pool
Boot-over-IP capability eliminates any need for the direct attached storage.

The Gateway also provides:

IP-based data replication features on block- and file-level
Point-in-time volume snapshots including writable snapshots
Snapshot-based incremental volume replication
Local and remote volume mirroring
Disk-to-disk and disk-to-tape backups of files
IPsec encryption and CHAP authentication
NAS that’s fully integrated with both Network Information Services (NIS) and Active Directory Services.

The RELDATA Gateway is available from Sunstar Company.

Also available is the RELATA Unified Storage solution, basically the Gateway with drives and fully configured.

Do contact us if we can be of assistance: info@sunstarco.com or 800.663.5523

Gavin

In bad econnomic times we still need to purchase storage

2008-09-29T14:01:00.000-07:00

Today was not a good day for the US stock market. The Dow dropped 770 points and the Nasdq lost almost 200 points.

So why am I noting all this gloom on the Sunstar Blog Site - after all Sunstar Company is a data storage and backup company.

Quite simply - our data continues to grow and we need to ensure that the data we have is available be it on RAID storage or perhaps archived onto tape. Look at your home computer, yes we are adding more data all the time and backup up less frequently. This we knno is not good. The disk drive manufacturers are increasing the drive capacities for two basic reasons: Technology alows for larger capacity and secondly, the consumers demand more capacity. Bottom line our data will continue to grow and I believe we are near the bottom of the curve.

Data is there and we need to deal with it. The consumers of RAID storage have few choices. Sure we can archive more, tape is great but we all question reliability. Primary storage can be cost prohibitave. So we must look to secondary storage.

Sunstar works with storage manufacturers such as NexSAN, iQStoar and Arena and thes folks tend to fucus on primarily SATA II storage, thus the secondary tier of storage.

As for tape - LTO, IBM and the StorageTek line are still popular - but now for archive purposes.

Please conatc Sunstar if we can be of assistance.
800.663-5523 info@sunstarco.com
Gavin

iQstor with Fibre Drives

2008-09-25T09:34:00.000-07:00

Fibre Disk drives are the standard for 3.5-inch 10K-RPM and 15K-RPM hard drives used in mission-critical server and storage solutions where system availability and reliability are of utmost importance.

If performance, reliability and innovation for enterprise applications is of importance to you, I would recommend that you looks at utilizing Fibre disk drives in your RAID. These drives tend to set the standard for e-business and real-time commerce infrastructure computing. Fibre drives are ideal for 3.5-inch mainstream and enterprise storage applications and is an excellent choice for demanding mission-critical network and server storage environments.

Broad range of capacities—from 36 GB to 450 GB
Serial Attached SCSI, Ultra320 SCSI, 2-Gb/s and 4-Gb/s Fibre Channel interfaces
A 40 percent improvement in IOPS/watt performance.
RoHS compliant
Sustained data rates up to 125 MB/s
Seek times as fast as 3.5 ms
Highest reliability rating in the industry
Generally - 5-year limited warranty

Sunstar Company offers the iQstor line of storage that utilize Fibre and SATA drives. Each shelf supports 15 drives and the two models that I would like to bring to you attention are:

Fibre to Fibre - iQ2880 4Gb Fibre to Fibre and iSCSI to Fibre - iQ2850 iSCSI to SATA or Fibre along with the JBOD that supports a choice of Fibre or SATA Drives. (240 Drives max)

Contact me and we discuss these options: 800.663.5523 info@sunstarco.com

Gavin

www.sunstarco.com

Advantages of SAS Drives

2008-09-25T09:07:00.000-07:00

Sunstar Company and NexSAN Technologies would like to introduce you to their new SASBoy Storage Array.

Serial Attached SCSI (SAS), the follow-on to parallel SCSI, is designed for high performance enterprise requirements.

SAS provides significant benefits to external storage subsystems and offers users "one-stop-shopping" to satisfy their requirements for the following three main data types.

Throughput Data: High MB/s and large data intensive files; Large block, random read/writes; Video streaming; CAD; Transaction Data; Reference Data

Transaction Data: Maximum IOP, calculation intensive files; Small block, random read/writes; Reservation systems; Billing systems

Reference Data: Large block, sequential writes / reads

SAS based external storage arrays (such as the NexSAN SASBoy) provide benefits in four areas: performance, availability, flexibility, scalability and cost of ownership.

SASBoy: High capacity – up to 4.2 TB in only 3U and Data Transfer Rates: Fibre: Up to 50,000 random IOPS from cache.

Many Thanks

Gavin

(800) 663-5523 info@sunstarco.com

www.sunstarco.com

iSCSI RAID now VMware Certified

2008-09-23T12:32:00.000-07:00

Sunstar Company, Inc is please to announce that the iQ2850 iSCSI storage system has been certified for use with VMware Infrastructure 3. Based on this completed interoperability testing, iQstor’s iQ2850 will now be included in the Storage / SAN Compatibility Guide for VMware ESX 3.5, a part of VMware Infrastructure 3, as a supported storage platform.

The iQstor iQ2850 iSCSI SAN is easily installed in under twenty minutes -- simplifying integration and accelerating migration into virtual environments. By deploying the iQ2850 with VMware Infrastructure 3, IT managers are able to leverage a simple, flexible virtual storage solution that can scale easily and affordably to meet changing business requirements.

iQstor’s iQ2850 iSCSI SAN includes:

integrated data protection and management features such as storage virtualization
snapshot
volume-copy
remote replication
storage provisioning
and policy-based capacity growth.

The iQ2850 provides simple storage consolidation, enabling virtual infrastructures to improve storage utilization and data protection methods, facilitate disaster recovery and optimize virtualized server availability and workload migration.

Every iQ2850 offers seamless and affordable online capacity expansion - up to 240 drives - and features eight iSCSI host ports for flexible, multi-host accessibility. iQstor’s fully redundant active-active architecture provides a complete and fault-tolerant SAN.

If this is iSCSI RAID solution is of interest to you please contact us:

800.663.5523 info@sunstarco.com

Gavin

www.sunstarco.com

Data Transcription and Migration Services

2008-09-23T11:05:00.000-07:00

Are you in need to repair or replace an existing tape drive?

Sunstar Company, Inc has the ability ro repair and supply new or replacement tape drives to companies offering:

Tape Media Copying
Tape Transcribing
Data Re-mastering
Data Archiving
Data Processing Services.
Tape drives supported:

LTO (Ultrium)
LTO 4, 3, 2 and 1 - Internal External (FH & HH) and for specific tape libraries
T9840, T9940 and T10000
T9840A, B, C & D; T9940A & B and T10000- Internal, External and for specific tape libraries
3480
All Manufacturers - Internal, External and for specific tape libraries
3490
All Manufacturers - Internal, External and for specific tape libraries
3490e
All Manufacturers - Internal, External and for specific tape libraries
3590
All Manufacturers - Internal, External and for specific tape libraries
3592 TS1120 TS1130
IBM, Internal, External and for specific tape libraries
DLT
DLT & SDLT drives - Internal, External and for specific tape libraries
SLR 9 Track 4mm 8mm
Internal, External and for specific tape libraries
DIR & DTF Drives
Internal, External and for specific tape libraries

Do let us know if we can be of assistance?

(800) 663-5523 info@sunstarco.com

Many Thanks

Gavin

Storage and Backup: Email Management Appliances

2008-09-23T09:39:00.000-07:00

Storage and Backup: Email Management Appliances
PivotStor Site
http://pivotstor.com/

Email Management Appliances

2008-09-22T11:50:00.000-07:00

Do you have an need to find and old email? Ideally we want to conduct a search using a command very similar to that of what we expect when we search within Google.

This option is available from PivotStor when install one of their email management appliances. What's more it is definable and has centralized policies for total information protection.

Let's use Sunstar Company as an example. We send and receive email every day, and we need the email to be filtered. Email enters the system and is then subject to the centralized policies of the EP-Archive storage engine. Its customizable rules can be tuned to match Sunstar's business needs. If the email or its attachments are duplicates, EP-Archive automatically tags it as a “single instance”, which serves to reduce storage drain. The email is then fully indexed for easy search and retrieval by end users.

And thanks to the sophistication of the EP-Archive software, archived data can be retrieved in minutes, not hours or days. This feature is particularly important in cases with legal ramifications.

Models available from Sunstar Company, designed to manage to over 2500 mailboxes and 800,000 emails per day:

EP-1000™ SMB is designed to protect up to 1000 mailboxes in a small to medium-sized company. A 1U rack-mount, short-form design with a low power footprint makes it ideal for any SMB company, ISP or ASP provider.

EP-2500™ SME is designed to protect up to 2500 mailboxes in a small to medium-sized enterprise. A 1U rack-mount, short-form design with a low power footprint makes it ideal for any SME company, ISP or ASP provider.

EP-2500+™ Enterprise is designed to protect over 2500 mailboxes in an enterprise environment. A 2U rack-mount design with a low power footprint makes it ideal for any enterprise company, ISP or ASP provider. It can be customized to support over 50,000 users per node.

Please contact us and let Sunstar help you select the appropriate solutions that will safeguard you and your emails. (800) 663-5523 info@sunstarco.com

Gavin
www.sunstarco.com

NAS for the SMB Market

2008-09-22T09:04:00.000-07:00

There are numerous manufacturers of NAS (Network Attached Storage) solutions that incorporate Microsoft's Windows Unified Data Storage Server 2003 (WUDSS) as their software engine.

However, I would like to focus on NexSAN's -The Edge NAS solutions that differs from the competition even though that they all utilize WUDSS.

A little about The Edge.

Greater capacity and density - Scale from a few TBs to14TBs to 46TBs to 84TBs
1U compact size with integrated FC storage ports and IP host and client ports
More robust reliability with NexSAN enterprise class RAID storage - FC connected RAID storage for higher performance
Quad core processor with 4GB of memory and two 80GB drives configured in a mirror
RAID operations are separate and off-loaded from The Edge NAS server maximizing NAS server CPU and memory performance.
Green benefits with Nexsan's energy saving AutoMAID technology
Consolidates file and block into a single solution with CIFS, NFS and iSCSI

The competition tends to incorporate a server at the head with a RAID controller or perhaps software RAID. Here NexSAN is somewhat different. Sure the operating system resides on the head - but that's where we part from the competition. Every NexSAN storage array includes a choice of a single or dual RAID controller. As we add another RAID box, we add another RAID controller. Perhaps you add a:

Each NexSAN box has it's own fast controller and a choice of SATA or SAS drives, ensuring that the NAS will not chug along but rather performance will increase as you add more Fibre Channel connected storage.

Green technology is supported. When you install The Edge and incorporate any of the NexSAN Storage Arrays you have the ability to take advantage AutoMaid at no additional charge thus reducing power and cooling costs. When activated you will reduce your power consumption by at least 15% to 50+%.

Sunstar Company continues to offer NexSAN Storage solutions. Their track record is excellent and having seen The Edge in action I am confident that this NAS box will be a terrific solution.

For additional in formation - contact us at: (800) 663-5523 or info@sunstarco.com

Gavin

http://www.sunstarco.com/

Sun StorageTek T10000B Tape Drive

2008-09-17T11:34:00.000-07:00

The Sun StorageTek T10000B tape drive delivers the industry’s highest capacity, making it ideal for 24x7 datacenter operations requiring high duty cycle data storage and retrieval.

Basic Facts:

1 TB native capacity and 120 MB/sec throughput drive datacenter efficiencies
Protects your investment with T10000 media re-use and broad compatibility
Supports demanding 24x7 business operations, minimizing risk
Enhances security and ensures data protection

As a result of its 120 MB/sec throughput, the StorageTek T10000B lets you write a terabyte of data in less than 2.5 hours, shrinking backup windows and saving staff time and resources. Add optional sport cartridges to the mix and get 2x faster average access to data. The StorageTek T10000B is compatible with Sun StorageTek enterprise libraries and integrates seamlessly with leading third-party enterprise software libraries and business applications.

The T10000B utilizes the same physical tape drive for FICON and Fibre Channel, allowing you to easily transition between both open systems and mainframe environments.

A great feature of the The StorageTek T10000B, it comes with built-in encryption. This tape-encryption appliance provides a simple, centralized, scalable solution for managing the keys used to encrypt and decrypt data written by the tape drive, ensuring that only the right people have access to the data.

info@sunstarco.com (800) 663-5523

Many Thanks

Gavin

Tandberg Data for the SMB

2008-09-17T11:14:00.000-07:00

We all are aware that Tandberg Data purchased Exabyte and it seems that they have covered all the bases if you are looking for a small tape library or autoloader.

Yes they do focus in the SMB enviroment, however with some of their larger libraries I feel that some enterprise accounts could certainly purchase one of the Tandberg libaries.

Let's review them:

Tandberg Data's new or renamed Exabyte Libraries - certainly their flagships.
StorageLibrary 24 Supporting 1 - 2 LTO Drives with 24 Slots
StorageLibrary T40 Supporting 1 - 4 LTO Drives with 40 Slots
StorageLibrary T80 Supporting 1 - 8 LTO Drives with 77 Slots

The reason for stating "say 1 - 4 drives," Tandberg has designed these units to support full height and half height LTO drives. Note: Most of these units support a variety of LTO generations and models and please look at each unit as to connectivity.

Hold outs from Exabyte.
StorageLoader LTO-4 Supporting 1 drive with 8 slots
StorageLoader LTO-3 Supporting 1 drive with 8 slots
StorageLoader LTO-2 Supporting 1 drive with 8 slots
Magnum 1x7 LTO Autoloader Supporting 1 drive with 7 slots
Magnum 224 Library Supporting 1- 2 drives with 24 slots (see T40)
Magnum 448 Library Supporting 1-4 drives with 48 slots

All in all, well manufactured LTO Tape Libraries and these units are available from Sunstar Company, Inc.
Please contact us: (800) 663-5523 or info@sunstarco.com
Many Thanks

Gavin

HP Business Class Tape Libraries

2008-09-15T14:28:00.000-07:00

Supporting up to 16 tape drives and 240 slots with a capacity to 96TB native. The Hewlett Packard (HP) Business Class Libraries are ideal for small to medium IT networks with or without a storage area network (SAN). Investment protection with both capacity and performance upgrades for environments with unpredictable data growth.

HP StorageWorks MSL6000 Tape Library
Supports LTO-4 Ultrium 1840 and LTO-3 Ultrium 960

HP StorageWorks MSL8096 Tape Library
Supports LTO-4 Ultrium 1840; LTO-4 Ultrium 1760; LTO-3 Ultrium 960 and LTO-3 Ultrium 920

HP StorageWorks MSL4048 Tape Library
Supports LTO-4 Ultrium 1840; LTO-4 Ultrium 1760; LTO-3 Ultrium 960 and LTO-3 Ultrium 920

HP StorageWorks MSL2024 Tape Library
Supports LTO-4 Ultrium 1840; LTO-4 Ultrium 1760; LTO-3 Ultrium 960; LTO-3 Ultrium 920 and LTO-2 Ultrium 448.

Each library includes two removable 12-slot magazines, and one user-configurable mail slot dedicated for import/export of data cartridges. A barcode reader is part of the standard configuration for facilitating media management.

We at Sunstar sell new and refurbished LTO tape drives.
(800) 663-5523 info@sunstarco.com
Gavin at Sunstar

HP LTO Tape Drives

2008-09-15T14:07:00.000-07:00

Looking for a new or used LTO tape drive manufactured by Hewlett Packard. HP has a plethora of models for you to choose from.

Questions to ask:

Connectivity - Fibre Channel, SCSI or SAS
Full Height or Half Height Drives
Capacity and speed. Choose from four generations of the Ultrium LTO drives: LTO1, LTO2, LTO3 or LTO4
Internal (System or library) or External

LTO4
HP Ultrium 1840 800GB at 120MB/s, 1.6TB at 240MB/s
HP Ultrium 1760 HH 800GB, 1.6TB at 576GB/hr

LTO3
HP Ultrium 960 400GB at 80MB/s, 800GB at 160MB/s
HP Ultrium 920 HH 400GB, 800GB at 432GB/hr

LTO2
HP Ultrium 460 200GB at 30MB/s, 400GB at 60MB/s
HP Ultrium 448 HH 200GB, 400GB at 173GB/hr

LTO1
HP Ultrium 232 HH 100GB, 200GB at 115GB/hr
HP Ultrium 230 100GB at 15MB/s, 200GB at 30MB/s

Do not be surprised if we at Sunstar have the model of your choice on hand.

info@sunstarco.com (800) 663-5523

Cheers

Gavin

www.sunstarco.com

Sun StorageTek T9840C Tape Drive

2008-09-12T15:05:00.000-07:00

The StorageTek T9840C drive is ideal for applications that demand high data throughput and fast recall and stores up to 40 gigabytes native on a single cartridge. Available with two-gigabit Fibre Channel, two gigabit FICON and ESCON connectivity, these drives give you access to data at an average of just 12 seconds

With native data transfer rates of 30 megabytes per second, the T9840C drive allows you to store more data in less time to meet your shrinking backup windows.

The T9840C drive is backward compatible, can store up to 75 GB on a single, reusable cartridge and provides an average file access time of 8 seconds.

When outfitted with fast-access StorageTek T9840 tape drives and StorageTek 9840 data cartridges, tape libraries can serve as a high-volume source for a large-capacity storage device for fixed-content data. Sun StorageTek VolSafe secure media technology utilizes Write-Once-Read-Many (WORM) technology to secure high-value, fixed-content data. Together, StorageTek T9840 tape drives and StorageTek 9840 tape cartridges comprise an ideal, active archive for regulated data that has been used worldwide since 2000 to meet compliance requirements.

Here at Sunstar Company, Inc we offer new and reconditioned StorageTek T9840C tape drives. We have an inventory of drives and spares on hand. Please consider contacting us at 800.663.5523 or via email info@sunstarco.com and perhaps we can be of assistance.

Many Thanks

Gavin
www.sunstarco.com

We purchase used media and services

2008-09-10T12:22:00.000-07:00

Sunstar Company will purchase your media.

We buy storage media such as LTO, ½" 3480, 3490, 3590, 9840 and 9940 cartridges

Please contact us @ purchasing@sunstarco.com
(800) 663.5523
www.sunstarco.com

LTO2 Tape Drives

2008-09-10T11:11:00.000-07:00

Linear Tape-Open (or LTO - Ultrium)) is a magnetic tape data storage technology developed as an open standards alternative to the proprietary magnetic tape formats.

LTO2 Tape drives were released in 2003 with a native capacity of 200GB and a Max Speed 40MB/s. Primary manufacturers of these LTO tape drives are: IBM, Quantum, Tandberg Data, Seagate and Certance.

Below is a list of the drives that we at Sunstar Company have sold and continue to offer as new or refurbished. Note that the half height drives have the same capacity but perform at a slower rate.
HP Ultrium 460 200GB at 30MB/s
IBM LTO-2 200GB at 35MB/s
Quantum LTO2 200GB at 123GB/hr
Quantum LTO2HH 200GB at 94GB/hr
Tandberg Data LTO2 HH 200GB at 24MB/s

The HP, IBM and Quantum full height drives are available with a choice of a SCSI or a Fibre interface. Internal, external or for a specific tape library.
Quantum LTO2 Half Height Drives deliver compressed capacities of 400GB and backup speeds of up to 187 GB/hr. They are read/write compatible to LTO-1. Available with Wide Ultra 160 SCSI connectivity.
Tandberg Data internal and external LTO-2 Half Height SCSI tape drive with a compressed transferred rate of 48MBs.
Tape Libraries that support LTO2 are shown on our web site at www.sunstarco.com

If you have an LTO tape drive that is not working at this time, contact us and perhaps we can repair the said unit.

For additional information please contact us: 800.663.5523 or info@sunstarco.com

RAID Levels

2008-09-10T08:35:00.000-07:00

RAID = Redundant Array of Independent Discs.
A RAID system is a collection of hard drives joined together using a RAID level definition.

RAID can be used to stripe drives together to give more overall access speed (level 0).
RAID can be used to mirror drives (level 1).
RAID can be used to increase uptime of your overall storage by striping drives together and then keeping parity data, if a drive should fail the system keeps operating (level 5 or 6).

RAID levels 5 and 6 are most commonly used, primarily for uptime purposes and its ability to join together (say) 14 drives, giving a large storage block.

Read about RAID levels below and for more detailed information visit the specific RAID Education page on our site at Sunstar Company, Inc.

Level 0
Striped Disk Array without Fault Tolerance: Provides data striping (spreading out blocks of each file across multiple disk drives) but no redundancy. This improves performance but does not deliver fault tolerance. If one drive fails then all data in the array is lost.
Level 1
Mirroring and Duplexing: Provides disk mirroring. Level 1 provides twice the read transaction rate of single disks and the same write transaction rate as single disks.
Level 2
Error-Correcting Coding: Rarely used, with data striped at the bit level rather than the block level.
Level 3
Bit-Interleaved Parity: Provides byte-level striping with a dedicated parity disk. Rarely used as it cannot service simultaneous multiple requests.
Level 4
Dedicated Parity Drive: A commonly used implementation of RAID, Level 4 provides block-level striping (like Level 0) with a parity disk. If a data disk fails, the parity data is used to create a replacement disk. A disadvantage to Level 4 is that the parity disk can create write bottlenecks.
Level 5
Block Interleaved Distributed Parity: Provides data striping at the byte level and also stripe error correction information. This results in excellent performance and good fault tolerance. Possibly the most popular implementations of RAID.
Level 6
Independent Data Disks with Double Parity: Provides block-level striping with parity data distributed across all disks. Very popular at this time.
Level 0+1
A Mirror of Stripes: Not one of the original RAID levels, two RAID 0 stripes are created, and a RAID 1 mirror is created over them. Used for both replicating and sharing data among disks.
Level 10
A Stripe of Mirrors: Not one of the original RAID levels, multiple RAID 1 mirrors are created, and a RAID 0 stripe is created over these.

Please feel free to contact us at Sunstar Company at: info@sunstarco.com or 800.663.5523

Many Thanks

Gavin

www.sunstarco.com

DLT Tape Drives is there still a market?

2008-09-09T09:51:00.000-07:00

Look at the list below and it is rather easy to tell that Quantum sold millions of these drives over the last decade or so. The sad truth is that today Quantum is not so fortunate. In fact they are now a leading manufacturer of their one time ardent competitor - the Ultrium LTO.

Sunstar Company offers the DLT-S4 and SDLT 600 and 320 but the inquires are few. Other than Quantum, I am not aware of any tape library manufacturer including the DLT or SDLT as an option.

Quantum's tape division seems to be focusing on the LTO technology. There are so many SDLT and DLT drives out there and Sunmstar Co. is one of the few organizations that can repair or replace these drives. We carry an iventory of refurbished SDLT and DLT drives and yes we do have spare parts.

DLT-S4 800GB at 60MB/s 1600GB at 320MB/s
SDLT 600 300GB at 36MB/s 600GB at 72MB/s
SDLT 320 160GB at 16MB/s 320GB at 32MB/s
SDLT 220 110GB at 11MB/s 220GB at 22MB/s
DLT 8000 40GB at 6MB/s 80GB at 12MB/s
DLT V4 160GB at 10MB/s 320GB at 20MB/s
DLT1 40GB at 3MB/s 80GB at 12MB/s
DLT-VS160 80GB at 8MB/s 160GB at 16MB/s
DLT-VS80 40GB at 3MB/s 80GB at 6MB/s
DLT 7000 35GB at 5MB/s 70GB at 10MB/s
DLT 4000 20GB at 1.5MB/s 40GB at 3MB/s
DLT 2000XT 15GB at 1.25MB/s 30GB at 2.5MB/s

If you have any of the drives above and you need assistance, please contact and hopefully we will be able to help you.
info@sunstarco.com (800) 663.5523

Many Thanks
Gavin
www.sunstarco.com

Refurbish your IBM Tape Drives

2008-09-08T13:46:00.000-07:00

We at Sunstar Company can refurbish your IBM Tape Drives.

Models that we work on daily.
3480 Internal, External and for specific tape libraries
3490 Internal, External and for specific tape libraries
3490e Internal, External and for specific tape libraries
3590 Internal, External and for specific tape libraries
3592 Internal, External and for specific tape libraries
TS1120 Internal, External and for specific tape libraries
TS1130 Internal, External and for specific tape libraries

LTO (Ultrium) Internal External (FH & HH) and for specific tape libraries

LTO 4
LTO 3
LTO 2
LTO 1

We offer:

Repairs
Recertification
Advance Exchange
Replacement

All drives are tested and retested before the drive is shipped.

Please call us in advance to receive a cost estimate and RMA no.

(800) 663-5523

Thank You

Sunstar Company, Inc.

www.sunstarco.com

We will repair your old tape drive

2008-09-08T13:38:00.001-07:00

Sunstar Company repair specific tape drives. Sure we have the ability to repair many more models, however often spare are not readily available and due to the fact "sometimes" it might be cost prohibitive to repair a drive.

We repair primary the follow drives:

LTO (Ultrium)
LTO 4, 3, 2 and 1 - Internal External (FH & HH) and for specific tape libraries
9840 & 9940
9840A, B & C and 9940A & B - Internal, External and for specific tape libraries
3480
All Manufacturers - Internal, External and for specific tape libraries
3490
All Manufacturers - Internal, External and for specific tape libraries
3490e
All Manufacturers - Internal, External and for specific tape libraries
3590
All Manufacturers - Internal, External and for specific tape libraries
3592 TS1120 TS1130
IBM, Internal, External and for specific tape libraries
DLT
DLT & SDLT drives - Internal, External and for specific tape libraries
SLR 9 Track 4mm 8mm
Internal, External and for specific tape libraries
DIR & DTF Drives
Internal, External and for specific tape libraries

Please do call us at 800.663.5523

Many Thanks

Gavin
www.sunstarco.com

Snap Server from Overland Storage

2008-09-08T08:21:00.000-07:00

Sunstar Company has sold the Snap Server line of storage solutions for years. Overland Storage recently purchased this line of storage from Adaptec and we will continue to promote the solutions offered.

Now we recognize that the Snap line, even though it is quote comprehensive is not for all. There are software suites offered for a fee that add terrific value to theses NAS devices.

At present we at Sunstar promote the following models"

Snap Server 650 High-performance block and file storage for enterprise data management1U 1.2TB - 85.2TB
Snap Server 520 Great storage performance with flexible capacity management1U 1TB – 88TB
Snap Server 410 High-performance rackmount storage with advanced data protection640GB, 1TB, 2TB, 3TB
Snap Server 210 High-performance, high-capacity desktop storage with advanced data protection500GB, 1TB, 1.5TB
Snap Server 110 Compact, high-performance desktop storage160GB, 250GB, 500GB, 750GB
SANBloc S50 JBOD Expansion for Snap Server 650 and Snap Server 520 with a choice of 12 SAS or SATA drives

Guardian OS - Operating system for Snap Server storage systems for the distributed enterprise

Snap EDR - Data protection, disaster recovery, and data management for distributed enterprises

In excess of 20,000 units in the field.

If the Snap Server line is of interest to you, please do contact us so that we can share our experiences with you.

info@sunstarco,com 800.663.5523

Many Thanks

Gavin

www.sunstarco.com

iQstor 2880 Fibre to Fibre RAID

2008-09-05T08:52:00.001-07:00

Offered by Sunstar Company, Inc. the iQstor iQ2880 is a full-featured 4Gb storage system, providing maximum flexibility, scalability and reliability for business, large and small. With all key internal components being hot-swappable and redundant, the iQ2880 ensures dependable data protection and delivery to help keep business-critical applications running smoothly. Supporting RAID level (0, 1, 1+0, 3, 5, 6) provides data protection and helps keep business critical applications running.

The iQstor 2880 Fibre to Fibre Storage uses high-performance RAID controllers and offers fast I/O response for searching and retrieving small fixed content files. It is well suited for applications like web and Intranet fixed content delivery, databases for storing and retrieving PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication Systems) content, document management, and business reports.

Each iQ2880 supports up to fifteen Fibre Channel Drives providing 6TB of storage capacity using 400GB (optional 10,000 or 15,000 RPM) disk drives or 15TB with 1TB SATA (7,200 RPM) disk drives. This capacity can be easily and dynamically scaled to 240TB by attaching optional J2880 disk enclosure with FC or SATA disk drives to the iQ2880 storage system, creating a tiered-storage environment, with Fibre Channel drives for primary storage and SATA drives for secondary storage.

The iQ2880 combines enterprise-level features such as storage virtualization, snapshot, mirroring, remote replication, storage provisioning and automated capacity growth with fully redundant components, to deliver storage scalability, data protection, storage automation and management simplicity

If this RAID solution is of interest to you contact us at Sunstar Company.
(800) 663.5523 info@sunstarco.com www.sunstarco.com
Many Thanks
Gavin
Sunstar Company.

NEXSAN SASBoy

2008-09-05T08:30:00.000-07:00

Available through Sunstar Company, Inc. the NexSAN SASBoy is designed to enable high performance fixed content applications with energy efficiency.

SASBoy is completely OS-independent and provides both iSCSI and Fibre Channel connectivity. Presently the SASBoy supports 14 x 300GB SAS drives (15000 RPM) in 3U for 4.2 TB of storage. Great for applications that require high transaction performance, the SASBoy supports 50,000 IOPS from cache and 2,500 IOPS from disk, and can sustain data rates up to 875 Mbps.

The SASBoy uses high-performance RAID controllers and offers fast I/O response for searching and retrieving small fixed content files. It is well suited for applications like web and Intranet fixed content delivery, databases for storing and retrieving PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication Systems) content, document management, and business reports.

Speeds: High performance random access for fixed content. Up to 50,000 random IOPS from cache
Green storage: Multiple levels of energy efficiency, user configurable to control energy use. No compromise on application performance. Comes standard with the SASBoy
Features both Fibre Channel and iSCSI connectivity to enable cost-effective, high performance access to large amounts of information
High availability architecture features full redundancy across all active components
Centralized management and monitoring platform that enables remote management and configuration of multiple arrays from a single GUI through NexScan software
Priced for the SME market (small to mid-size enterprises)
Easily integrates with SATA products for tiered storage
Three-year warranty includes advance exchange, 24-7 technical support.

Please do contact us if you would like to learn more about this solution. Best to reach us by: Calling us at (800) 663.5523, email info@sunstarco.com or visiting us at http://www.sunstarco.com/

Many Thanks
Gavin
Sunstar Company, Inc.

Fibre Attached Storage

2008-09-05T07:44:00.001-07:00

Fibre attached SANs at this point in time are certainly the SAN of choice when the client has a need for fast storage. Sure we can consider iSCSI SANs, however if a database is involved and the client is look for the highest IOPS then we tend to point to a Fibre Attached SAN with fast drives.

Generally speaking databases are not that large so we tend to recommend utilizing either Fibre or SAS drives drives within the SAN.

Two manufacturers come to mind: NexSAN and iQstor. Two very different solutions; one supporting SAS and the other Fibre drives.

NexSAN SASBoy.

High Performance SAS Storage (15K SAS)
High transaction performance
NexSAN's revolutionary AutoMAID™ energy saving technology greatly reduces power consumption and operating costs.
High capacity – up to 4.2 TB in only 3U
Dual function Fibre Channel and iSCSI connectivity
Transaction speeds up to 50,000 IOPS from cache and 2,500 IOPS

iQstor iQ2880 :

High Performance Fibre Storage (choice of 10K or 15K Fibre)
Single or Dual RAID Controllers
Full 4GB Fibre
Capacity: Up to 240 drives, using expansion chassis
Software solution sets - SnapShots, Replication, Volume Copy, Volume Manager Virtualization etc.

I will discuss each one of these RAID solutions in more detail in the following blogs.

Please contact at Sunstar Company, Inc if we can be of assistance.

info@sunstarco.com (800) 663-5523

www.sunstarco.com

Is tape dead?

2008-09-04T09:24:00.000-07:00

I can't count the number of time I have heard the question - is tape dead? As we continue this debate it is clear that the days when tape drives or libraries were purchased on a regular basis is certainly over. Disk is certainly a player in the decision process and it is my belief that tape will soon be relegated to mere archive in the years to come.

There are many choices available from so many manufacturers that it seems that the end user is often confused as to what will be the right solution for their company.

I am an advocate that tape should still be part of the backup/archive strategy but not at the expense of fast reliable backup and more importantly ask the question - how fast can I retrieve my data?

Some of the options available:
Storage - DAS, SAN, NAS or iSCSI
VTL
Data Deduplication
Replication
Tape

Unfortunately "data loss" is only too real and we all have experienced some data loss at one point in time or another. The key here is to minimized this potential loss and with the appropriate planning we can alleviate the pain.

Please do contact Sunstar Company and let us help you design the appropriate backup strategy that works best for you.
info@sunstarco.com 800.663.5523
Thank You

Gavin

Tape drive repairs

2008-09-04T08:59:00.000-07:00

Sunstar Company, Inc. repairs and service the following Tape Drives and Loaders.
3480, 3490, 3490e, 3590 3592 and TS1120
All LTO Drives
All 9840 and 9940 drives
Sony DTF, AIT, SAIT and DIR
A $125.00 fee applies to product shipped to our facility for evaluation.
The approval of any repair waives the $125.00 evaluation fee.
Standard turn around time is usually 3 to 5 business days on most repairs.
Expedited repairs can often be returned by the following business day with a priority shipping service.
All repairs carry a 90 day warranty.
For additional information - follow this link.
To request a RMA number and specific details

iSCSI Storage for the future?

2008-09-03T09:02:00.000-07:00

Question - If Fibre Channel SANs are the present are iSCSI SAN's the future of storage area networks?

Facts:

iSCSI is preferred over Fibre Channel and outperforms Fiber Channel SANs when using small and mid-range servers with limited data transfers
Fiber Channel SANs are superior when compared to iSCSI SANs when large database transfers and input/output operations take place.
Ethernet is the most simplistic part of iSCSI. It runs on Ethernet. The odds are good that you and your coworkers are familiar with Ethernet—positive and negative points. With iSCSI, you can rely on inexpensive, commodity hardware and can get your SAN running quickly and easily.
In most iSCSI equipment, the snapshot feature is included in the base price of the product. Snapshots provide significant data protection in that they can protect your data between backups.
Replication - optional
Scalability - depends on the manufacturer

iSCSI SAN technologies are improving and will soon be available to handle the high Input/Output operations of database transfers that are better supported Fiber Channel SANs.

For additional information - visit our web site: www.sunstarco.com
info@sunstarco.com 800.663.5523
Many Thanks

Gavin
Sunstar Company, Inc.

Why should you purchase an iSCSI SAN

2008-09-03T08:30:00.000-07:00

Here at Sunstar Company we offer a number of iSCSI SAN storage solutions; and frankly speaking we see more of these units being installed today than Fibre attached storage.

There are many reasons for this - in no particular order.

Cost to implement - very little additional infrastructure. If you have a Gigabit network - a switch with an extra port - installation is quick and easy. Not necessary to purchase additional hardware in most cases.
Ease of installation - Most manufacturers have installed a simple " follow me" wizard and hopefully within 30 minutes you are up.
iSCSI is fast and unless you have a bandwidth-intensive application (e.g., streaming media) this should be ample.
Consolidate hardware and resources through advanced technology
Flexible: Eliminates physical limitations of dedicated storage networks
Remote Access: Allows to quickly and easily manage and allocate server and storage resources.
Reliable: Multiple-redundant drives for reliable storage of the most sensitive of data

As for Applications:

Storage networks
Upgrade existing Fiber Channel Networks to iSCSI
Server Virtualization
Multi-site Replication: Increases redundancy and allows for hardware to communicate without being physically connected.
Offsite Backup

Some of the manufacturers taht we work with and have installed their iSCSI SAN solutions:
StoreVault
Gigabit
12 SATA Drives, 2U or 8 SATA Drives, 4U
iSCSI and NAS Storage - File and Block level
NexSAN
Gigabit, FC & SCSI
14 or 42 SATA, 3U or 4U Storage
iQstor
Gigabit
15 Fibre or SATA - 240 Drives
iSCSI Storage with software
RELDATA
Gigabit, SCSI, FC, SAS
Your choice Virtualization of Existing Storage Assets
iSCSI and NAS Storage - File and Block level
Arena
Gigabit
12 or 16 SATA or SAS Drives, 3U
iSCSI Storage
Snap Server
Gigabit
4+ SATA or SAS Drives
iSCSI and NAS Storage - File and Block level

Bottom Line: unless you need absolute speed - install iSCSI

For additional information - contact us:

info@sunstarco.com 800.663.5523

Many Thanks

Gavin at Sunstar Company, Inc.

www.sunstarco.com

PiviStor TL4000 4U LTO Tape Library

2008-09-02T10:33:00.000-07:00

Earlier on today I wrote a blog on the PivotStor TL8000, their 8U 96 slot library. let's look at the TL4000, 4U with 48 slots - ½ the size and capacity.

Total compressed data storage capacity ranges from 38.4 TB (LTO-3HH or LTO-3FH) to 76.8 TB (LTO-4FH).
Compressed data transfer rates range from 432 GBytes per hour per LTO-3HH drive, 576 GBytes per hour per LTO-3FH drive, and 864 GBs per hour per LTO-4FH drive.
Single or dual LTO-3HH drive (customer upgradeable to four LTO-3HH drives) with a SCSI or SAS interface
Single or dual LTO-3FH with either a FC or SCSI interface, or LTO-4FH drive with a FC, SAS or SCSI interface.
All models include four (4) 12-slot tape cartridge magazines (left-side with mailslot).
Accessories include customer-installable LTO Ultrium drives (LTO-3HH, LTO-3, and LTO-4) and additional 12-slot tape cartridge magazines.

The PivoStor TL4000 product family is designed with the affordable scalabilty of LTO Ultrium drive format and interface support in mind. The user can easily upgrade their backup and archive solution to up to four LTO-3HH drives, or up to 2 LTO-4, or LTO-3, full-height tape drives.

Ideal for:

Archiving
Backup
Disaster Recovery
etc

Each TL4000 4U Tape Library includes industry-leading standard features such as a remote management user interface, a rack-mount kit, an ethernet cable, and a bar code reader.

Standard Warranty - 1 year advance replacement warranty. Optional 1-year or 3-year warranty upgrades.

For further information please contact Sunstar Company.
info@sunstarco.com 800.663.5523
Many Thanks
Gavin
www.sunstarco.com

PivotStor TL8000 LTO Tape Libarary

2008-09-02T09:58:00.000-07:00

Are you looking to archive your data?

If you are considering a tape library we at Sunstar Company would like to introduce you to the PivotStor brand of libraries. With the latest LTO tape drives, these powerful and economic libraries are making there mark worldwide.

I would like to focus on one library in particular today, their 8U TL8000. The TL8000 product family is designed with a high degree of scalability by providing the customer to upgrade their solution onsite with up to eight (8) LTO-3HH drives or up to four (4) LTO-3/LTO-4 full-height drive in a compact 8U design.

Ideal for:

data retention
compliance
backup
archive
disaster recovery

Some facts:

Total compressed data storage capacity ranges from 76.8 TB (LTO-3HH or LTO-3FH) to 153.6 TB (LTO-4FH).
Compressed data transfer rates range from 432 GBytes per hour per LTO-3HH drive, 576 GBytes per hour per LTO-3FH drive, and 864 GBs per hour per LTO-4FH drive.
Single or dual LTO-3HH drive (customer upgradeable to four LTO-3HH drives) with a SCSI or SAS interface
Single or dual LTO-3FH with either a FC or SCSI interface, or LTO-4FH drive with a FC, SAS or SCSI interface.
All models include eight (8) 12-slot tape cartridge magazines (left-side with mailslot). Available accessories include customer-installable LTO Ultrium drives (LTO-3HH, LTO-3, and LTO-4) and additional 12-slot tape cartridge magazines.

Each PivotStor TL 8000 8U Tape Library family also includes industry-leading standard features such as a remote management user interface, a rack-mount kit, an ethernet cable, and a bar code reader.

Warranty - A standard 1-year advance replacement warranty with optional 1-year or 3-year warranty upgrades.

All in all a terrific library at a reasonable price.

Please feel free to contact us at Sunstar Company.

info@sunstarco.com 800.663.5523

www.sunstarco.com

IBM 3590 Tape Drives

2008-08-29T09:29:00.000-07:00

The IBM 3590 (Magstar) is a series of Tape Drives and corresponding magnetic tape data storage media formats developed by IBM. The 3590 series of tape drives and media are not compatible with the IBM 3592 line of drives that replaced it. They can store up to 60 GB of data (uncompressed). This family superseded the IBM 3480 Tape Drives popular in 1980s and 1990s.

Like the 3480 and 3592 formats, this tape format has half inch tape spooled onto 4-by-5-by-1 inch data cartridges containing a single reel. A takeup reel is embedded inside the tape drive. The 3590 Tape Drives are still in high demand and Sunstar Company maintains an inventory of numerous models and configurations. Units are sold with warranty and can be made available for IBM maintenance.

.A hallmark of the genre is transferability. Tapes recorded with one tape drive are generally readable on another drive, even if the tape drives were built by different manufacturers. Magstar tapes and drives are available in 128, 256 and 384-track versions.

3590 B Model (3590 B11/B1A), 128 tracks
3590 E Model (3590 E11/E1A), 256 tracks
3590 H Model (3590 H11/H1A), 384 tracks

IBM 3590 E1A IBM 3590 B1A IBM 3590 H1A
IBM MAGSTAR 3590 Model B1A / E1A IBM MAGSTAR 3590 Model B1A IBM MAGSTAR 3590 Model E1A
IBM MAGSTAR 3590 Model B11A / E11 IBM MAGSTAR 3590 Model B11A IBM MAGSTAR 3590 Model E11
FUJITSU M8100

Note:
We repair all 3590 Tape drives and if you need any help wityh data conversion we will gladly assist you.
info@sunstarco.com (800) 663-5523

Many Thanks
Sunstar Co.
www.sunstarco.com

IBM TS1130 Tape Drive

2008-08-28T15:09:00.000-07:00

The IBM System Storage TS1130 Tape Drive features storage capability to help you establish easy access to data, better security, long-term retention and data governance and regulatory compliance.

The TS1130 tape drive offers high-performance flexible data storage with support for data encryption. The TS1130 tape drive can help you protect your investments in tape automation by offering compatibility with existing automation. To further protect your investment, an upgrade model is available for your existing IBM System Storage TS1120 Tape Drives. And to support a heterogeneous server environment, the TS1130 offers multiplatform support.

The TS1130 Tape Drive supports IBM System Storage TS3400 and TS3500 Tape Libraries, IBM TotalStorage® 3494 Tape Libraries, IBM racks that enable stand-alone installation, and IBM 3952 Tape Frames Model C20 (3952C20 frame) attached to a Sun 9310 library.

The TS1130 tape drive supports a native data transfer rate of up to 160 MBps to deliver information at the speed your business demands.

Media
The TS1130 Tape Drive is able to utilize existing IBM 3592 data cartridges at higher levels of capacity and performance. The tape drive uses re-writable or Write Once Read Many (WORM)

Up to 3 TB on a 3592 JB/JX cartridge IBM 3592 cartridges available in three levels of capacity.

Do let us know if you have any questions.
info@sunstarco.com 800.663.5523
Gavin
www.sunstarco.com

IBM TS1120 Tape Drive

2008-08-28T12:10:00.000-07:00

The IBM TS1120 Tape Drive offers a solution to address applications that need high capacity, fast access to data or long-term data retention. It is supported in IBM tape libraries, IBM frames that support stand-alone installation, and in an IBM 3592 Tape Frame Model C20 (3592 C20 frame) attached to a Sun StorageTek 9310 library.

The TS1120 tape drive supports a native data transfer rate of up to 104 MBps. In open system environments where data typically compresses at 2:1, the TS1120 tape drive can transfer data up to 200 MBps. In a mainframe environment where data typically compresses at 3:1, a single tape drive can transfer data up to 260 MBps.

Media
The tape drive uses IBM 3592 Cartridges, which are available in limited capacity (100GB) for fast access to data, and standard capacity (500GB) or extended capacity (700GB) that help to reduce resources to lower total cost. All three cartridges are available in re-writable or Write Once Read Many (WORM) format.
Up to 2.1TB on a 3592 JB/JX cartridge

The TS1120 Tape Drive provides up to 60% more capacity and 150% more performance than the IBM TotalStorage 3592 J1A tape drive that it supersedes, and more than eight times the capacity and seven times the performance of the IBM TotalStorage 3590 H1A tape drive. The tape drive uses the existing 3592 media-which is available in re-writable or Write Once Read Many (WORM) media to store 100GB or 500GB depending on cartridge type. The 3592 JA/JW media helps reduce resources to lower total costs, whereas the 3592 JJ/JR media is designed to support applications that require rapid access to data.

In an open systems or mainframe environment, the TS1120 tape drive can use the 3592 JJ cartridge or format a 3592 JA cartridge to a 100GB capacity to reduce the average locate time using a unique function called Capacity Scaling.

The TS1120 can be purchased from Sunstar as new or reconditioned with warranty. Should you wish to add this drive to your IBM contract we can arrange to have the tape drive be certified by IBM - ready for maintenance.

For additional information contact Sunstar.
info@sunstarco.com 800.663.5523
Many Thanks
Gavin
www.sunstarco.com

IBM 3592 Tape Drive

2008-08-28T11:17:00.001-07:00

The IBM 3592 is a series of tape drives and corresponding magnetic tape data storage media formats developed by IBM.

The IBM 3592 tape drive was introduced under the nickname Jaguar. The next drive was the TS1120, also having the nickname Jaguar followed by the TS1130. All three of these drives are available from Sunstar Company with warranty. The IBM 3592, TS1120 or TS1130 when purchased as reconditioned can be certified by IBM, in essence ready for IBM maintenance.

Note: The 3592 line of tape drives and media is not compatible with the IBM 3590 series of drives, which it superseded.

Interfaces Supported: FC, ESCON, FICON, 2Gb FICON

Media and Capacity
Like the 3590 and 3480 before it, this tape format has half inch tape spooled onto 4" x 5" x 1" data cartridges containing a single reel. A takeup reel is embedded inside the tape drive. Because of their speed, reliability, durability and low media cost, the 3592 tape drives are still in high demand.

3592 JJ/JR cartridge = 60GB (Native)
3592 JA/JW cartridge = 300GB (Native)

Models Supported:
IBM 3592 M odel J1A
IBM 3592 M ode J70
IBM 3592 M odel C20
Model 3592-E05 (TS1120)
TS1130 Tape Drive

IBM Libraries that support the 3592:
TS3500 Tape Library
3494 Tape Library

Please do contact Sunstar Company and we should be able to support your IBM Tape Drive Request .
info@sunstarco.com (800) 663-5523
Many Thanks
Gavin
http://www.sunstarco.com/

3480 Tape Drives

2008-08-28T09:24:00.000-07:00

3480 Tape Drives were initially designed and built for mainframe computers. The first 3480 tape drives communicated through a bus and tag interface. Later models were able to take advantage of ESCON and high voltage SCSI interfaces. The advent of the SCSI interface made it possible to connect 3480 family tape drives to personal computers, which enabled mainframe-to-pc data exchange.

We at Sunstar Company offer refurbished 3480 Tape Drives with a choice of ESCON or SCSI interfaces with warranty.

The IBM 3480 was the first tape drive to employ thin-film heads, as well as the first to use chromium dioxide tape.
It was also distinguished by a relatively high data transfer rate: 3 megabytes per second. This was because it was able to read and write linear data across 18 recording tracks simultaneously, or 38,000 bytes per inch of tape.

IBM's prior technology employed 9 recording tracks and achieved only 1600/6,250 bytes per inch of tape, the 3480 format was greeted as a major breakthrough: 200 megabytes of data per tape cartridge as opposed to the 100 megabytes on the 6250 1/2" tape reels. IBM offered 3480 tape drives with bus and tag interfaces, other manufacturers sold models with SCSI interfaces.

At Sunstar Company we repair and reconfigure 3480 Tape Drives with most interfaces. Please do call us as we do have a significant inventory on hand and should you wish us to repair your tape drive this can easily be arranged.

Models that we tend to see most often:

DEC TKZ60, TKZ61, TKZ62, TKZ64
FUJITSU M2483K/M2485K FUJITSU M2483B/M2485B FUJITSU M2481 FUJITSU M2481A11
MP SYSTEMS 8418
OVERLAND DATA TAPE EXPRESS L490
JVC (Victor Data Systems) 8418
MP SYSTEMS MP 8436

Also available - Backup Software specific to 3480 Tape drives and we can support you if you have some conversion requirements.

info@sunstarco.com (800) 663-5523

Gavin
Sunstar Company, Inc
www.sunstarco.com

3490e Tape Drive

2008-08-28T08:51:00.000-07:00

Introduced in 1991 by IBM the 3490E tape drive is available from Sunstar Company; refurbished with warranty.

Its 36-track head was able to record 800 megabytes of data on a single tape. The IDRC option allowed it to record up to 2400 megabytes on a single extended tape.

3490E tape drives were available from a variety of manufacturers with bus and tag, ESCON, or high voltage SCSI interfaces, and were capable of data transfer speeds up to 20MB per second.

Some 3490E tape drives are able to read tapes recorded by 3480 tape drives. Others can also write tapes that can be read by 3480 tape drives. But many 3490E tape drives can only read/write 36-track tapes.

Media
While 3490E data cartridges are the same dimensions as 3480 cartridges, the tape media is the same only longer. 3490E tape is optimized for 36-track recording heads, instead of 18-track recording heads. Nevertheless, some 3480 tape drives can record on 3490E media.

Some of the 3490E tape drive models we support, repair and inventory.

DEC TKZ60, TKZ61, TKZ62, TKZ64
FUJITSU M2488C FUJITSU M2483K/N & M2485K/N FUJITSU M2488E
IBM 3490E
OVERLAND DATA TAPE EXPRESS T490E OVERLAND DATA TAPE EXPRESS L490E
PHILLIPS TD3620 PHILLIPS TD3610
MP SYSTEMS MP 8436 MP SYSTEMS MP 8436F
TANDEM 5194 TANDEM 5196
M4 DATA M490E

If you are looking to purchase backup software or possibly conversion software for these 3490E tape drives we can help you.
.
Please do call us if you have any questions relating to the 3490E tape drives.
info@sunstarco.com 800.663.5523
Many Thanks
Gavin
Sunstar Company, Inc.
http://www.sunstarco.com/

LTO Tape Drives

2008-08-27T11:31:00.000-07:00

LTO Tape Drives from Sunstar Company, Inc. These drives are also known as Ultrium Drives.
Four generations to date from numerous manufacturers:
IBM, HP, Quantum, Tandberg, Seagate, Certance

Linear Tape-Open (LTO) technology was developed jointly by HP, IBM and Quantum to provide a clear and viable choice in an increasingly complex array of tape storage options.

Generation 4
Delivering 1.6TB (2:1 compression) and up to 800 GB native per cartridge, Ultrium format Generation 4 provides data transfer rates of up to 240 MB/second (2:1 compression).

Generation 3
Featuring capacities of 800 GB (2:1 compression) and up to 400 GB native per cartridge, Ultrium format Generation 3 provides data transfer rates of up to 160 MB/second (2:1 compression) for the third generation of the 8-channel version.

Generation 2
With a cartridge capacity of up to 400 GB (2:1 compression) and up to 200 GB native, Ultrium format Generation 2 provides data transfer rates of up to 80 MB/second (2:1 compression).

Generation 1
First licensed in 1998, with product appearing in 2000, Ultrium format Generation 1 provides cartridge capacities of up to 200 GB (2:1 compression) and up to 100 GB native with data transfer rates of up to 40 MB/ second (2:1 compression).

Generation 5 to follow in the near future.
Capacity: 3.2 TB (assuming a 2:1 compression)Data transfer speed: up to 360 MB/s (assuming a 2:1 compression)

These drives are available as:

Single internal or external
For tape libraries
Full Height or Half Height Format
Connectivity: SCSI, Fibre or SAS

Sunstar Company Drive Comparison Chart.

LTO Tape Libraries that we recommend.

Backward Compatibility

Generally speaking - an LTO tape drive will be able to read and write to the previous generation drive and read data only from the generation prior. LTO4's media is different from the prior generation's so this might change in the future.

LTO1, 2 and 3 drives are unable to read or recognize LTO4 media. LTO4 media can only be used in LTO4 drives.

LTO 4 format is backwards compatible with LTO 2 and 3 data cartridges only. This means LTO 2 and LTO 3 media may be both read in an LTO 4 drive, but backwards write compatibility is limited to LTO3 media.

Lastly, LTO 4 WORM cartridge can only be used in an LTO4 drive equipped with WORM functionality.

Take your time reading the last couple of points above. It can be confusing.

In conclusion the LTO format seems to be the clear leader in terms of archiving of data on to tape.

For further information contact Sunstar Company at:

info@sunstarco.com 800.663.5523

Many Thanks

Gavin

Large Capacity Storage

2008-08-27T08:33:00.000-07:00

A terrific product that we seem to have much success with is the NexSAN SATABeast.
Sunstar Company has had a long term relationship with NexSAN Technologies and finds that their RAID solutions are:

Fast
Reliable
Well Made
Price Right
and Support is excellent

It is for this reason that Sunstar and other VARS sell their storage.

I would like to focus on the NexSAN SATABeast in today blog.

Prior to the SATABeast NexSAN had a product called the ATABeast. Primary difference - ATABeast supported Parallel ATA drives and as the name implies the SATABeast supports SATA drives.

Facts

Highest storage density in the industry - up to 42 TB in only 4U.
High capacity disk storage array with revolutionary power saving technology
Full Enterprise class performance and reliability
Dual function Fibre Channel and iSCSI connectivity with wire-speed performance. Flexible, scalable and completely OS independent, SATABeast easily supports a broad range of storage infrastructures.
High performance – over 700 MB/s sustained throughput
Supports RAID 0, 1, 1+0, 4, 5 and 6
Supports multiple RAID sets and multiple volumes per set.
Integrated Fibre Channel and iSCSI connectivity for flexible implementation
Supports automatic IP address assignment via DHCP, manually using IP Gleaning, over serial port, or via web page.
Nexsan's revolutionary AutoMAID™ energy saving technology greatly reduces power consumption and operating costs.
Nexsan Technologies storage systems are warranted for three full years

Bottom line. The NexSAN SATABeast sells itself. If you have a storage requirement that requires a solution that will grow with you consider the SATABeast. Install 20TB today and the balance over time. Drive capacities do not need to match,(RAID sets.)

The SATABeast is geared to work with the following NexSAN solutions:

Not to forget the other NexSAN storage solutions:

SATAbeastXi- Almost identical to the SATABeast - however geared towards Apple Mac.
SATABoy - 14 Bay, 3U SATA Storage Array - 14TB Max - choice of single or dual controller
SASBoy - Similiar to SATABoy - however suppoting SAS drives only.

Please do visit the NexSAN page on our web site and do contact us if you have any questions?
info@sunstarco.com 800.663.5523
Many Thanks

Sunstar
www.sunstarco.com

Quantum Scalar i500

2008-08-26T09:38:00.000-07:00

Sunstar company would like to introduce you to the Quantum Scalar i500. Possibly one of the best engineered tape library in the market today.

Quantum’s Scalar i500 is the intelligent library platform that gives growing midrange storage environments faster, easier, and more reliable data protection.

The Scalar i500 combines modular design with continuous robotics to provide industry-leading scalability, performance, and reliability.

The Scalar i500 is designed to integrate easily with disk backup making it the perfect library for next-generation backup architectures.

IT managers can be assured they will have reliable, high-performance backup, certain restores, and effective long term protection for years into the future, no matter how their storage needs evolve.

Library Facts:
Supports - 18 LTO4 or LTO3 Tape Drives
Media Slots - 36 to 402
Base Unit - 5U
Expansion Unit - 9U (Max. of 2)
Drive Interface - SCSI-2/SCSI-3 LVD; integrated FC interface option
Library Interface - SCSI-2/SCSI-3 LVD; integrated FC interface option
Import/Export - Up to 54 (LTO) positions in removable magazines

The i500 comes with a one-year warranty enhanced with service options. It is supported by Quantum’s StorageCare™ service approach that extends remote diagnostics to the storage ecosystem.

For additional information please do contact us:
info@sunstarco.comn
800.663.5523

Many Thanks

Sunstar Co.
http://www.sunstarco.com/

Data MIgration

2008-08-26T09:27:00.000-07:00

Data Migration is the process of moving static or preexisting long-term retention data to a newer technology.

Typically this involves the moving of 3480/90 cartridges to a combination of Virtual and Deep Tape (e.g. Magstar) technologies. The process and issues are largely dictated by the platforms and applications involved.

Why migrate data? To take full advantage of newer technologies and your investment in them, it is necessary to port your older data to such new storage platforms.

For additional information please visit Sunstar Co. or call us at 800.663.5523

Thank you.
Sunstar Company, Inc.
www.sunstarco.com

Tape Drive Repair

2008-08-25T10:10:00.000-07:00

Sunstar Company, Inc. repairs and services a variety of Tape Drives and Loaders.

LTO Tape Drives SDLT/DLT Tape Drives 9840 and 9940 Tape Drives
3590 Tape Drives TS1130 Tape Drive TS1120 Tape Drive 3592 Tape Drive
3490e Tape Drives 3490 Tape Drives 3480 Tape Drives
4mm Tape Drives 8mm Tape Drives 9 Track Drives
DIR & DTF Drives AIT Tape Drives SLR Tape Drives
Tape Drives, Libraries & Autoloaders

A $125.00 fee applies to product shipped to our facility for evaluation.
The approval of any repair waives the $125.00 evaluation fee.
Standard turn around time is usually 3 to 5 business days on most repairs.
Expedited repairs can often be returned by the following business day with a priority shipping service.
All repairs carry a 90 day warranty.
To request a RMA number and specific details

For addition information contact us:
sales@sunstarco.com 800.663.5523

Thank You
http://www.sunstarco.com/ 800.663.523

Apple Xserve and Mac Pro Storage

2008-08-25T09:51:00.000-07:00

Storage for the Apple and Mixed OS Environments

NexSAN recently released the NexSAN SATABeastXi, the first high density, energy efficient storage solution built for the Xserve and Mac Pro markets.

It delivers the highest density storage solution available with 42TB of storage in only 4U of rack space.

Delivering the only dual function Fibre Channel and iSCSI connectivity with wire-speed performance, the SATABeast Xi is flexible, scalable and completely OS independent to easily support a broad range of storage and computing infrastructures. While it is optimized for the Apple Xserve and Mac Pro environments, it can be used as a storage solution in mixed environments with equal ease.

Based on the proven technology of Nexsan's award-winning SATABeast, the SATABeast Xi provides the market with a high density, plug and play solution that is complementary to Xserve's existing storage options.

SATABeast Xi is designed specifically for Xserve and Mac Pro, complementing those environments in both physical look and feel, and it's easy to use GUI will be familiar to Leopard users.

Optimized for the Xserve and Mac Pro markets, SATABeast Xi delivers high end performance at an exceptional price.

SATABeast Xi is designed for primary storage of large data set applications like uncompressed, real-time HDTV as well as multi-stream and analog TV signals and high quality video editing with no frame drops.

It also is ideal for addressing secondary storage applications and disk-to-disk backup in which online access to data delivers superior business continuity and data protection as well as instant access to large volumes of data.

AutoMAID™ (Massive Array of Idle Disks) allows SATABeast Xi to place its disk drives in an idle state to conserve energy yet provide near-instantaneous access to data. This breaks new ground in the Xserve market where no other energy efficient storage solution of this caliber exists.

Key Facts:
Delivers 4GB Fibre Channel connectivity and iSCSI for mixed environments
Supports RAID 0, 1, 5, 6,10, 30 and 50
Second generation SATA drives
Allows up to 42 1TB drives in 4U
Designed for primary and secondary storage as well as D2D backup in enterprise environments where reliability is an absolute
High availability architecture features full redundancy across all active components.

For additional information on the full line of NexSAN Storage Solutions please visit their relevant pages at www.sunstarco.com.

Please do contact us for pricing or additional information.
800.663.5523 info@sunstarco.com

Thank you
www.sunstarco.com

Should we install an iSCSI SAN

2008-08-25T09:34:00.000-07:00

First lets understand iSCSI
iSCSI is Internet SCSI (Small Computer System Interface), an Internet Protocol (IP)-based storage networking standard for linking data storage facilities.

Bu carrying SCSI commands over IP networks, iSCSI is used to facilitate data transfers over intranets and to manage storage over long distances.

iSCSI can be used to transmit data over local area networks (LANs), wide area networks (WANs), or the Internet and can enable location-independent data storage and retrieval.

iSCSI is one of two main approaches to storage data transmission over IP networks; the other method, Fibre Channel over IP, translates Fibre Channel control codes and data into IP packets for transmission between distant Fibre Channel SANs.

Sunstar offer a selection of manufacturers utilizing iSCSI in order to build a SAN.
Please follow this link to a selection of vendors?
Some of the storage manufacturers have built in tools - other in essence offer purely an iSCSI connection.

Do contact us if you have any questions?
info@sunstarco.com
800.663.5523
www.sunstarco.com

Thank You

AIT Tape Drives

2008-08-21T11:30:00.000-07:00

Sunstar Company has sold thousands of Sony AIT tape drives, be it stand alone in an external case, installed in a computer or in a library. We offer re-conditioned units for single applications and tape libraries.

AIT-1
The AIT-1 format offered a data capacity rate of up to 25GB (up to 65GB compressed), and a 3MB/s data transfer rate. An extended length tape for the AIT-1 drive was introduced in 1999 to offer additional capacity of up to 35GB (up to 90GB compressed) and the data transfer rate was later increased to 4MB/s.

AIT-1 Turbo
AIT-1 Turbo drives offer a new data capacity rate of up to 40GB (up to 104GB compressed) and a 6MB/s data transfer rate. AIT-1 Turbo is available in a variety of interfaces, including SCSI, ATAPI, USB, FireWire, and SATA.

AIT-2
AIT-2 provides a capacity of up to 50GB (up to 130GB compressed) together with a 6MB/s data transfer rate and provides the Write-Once-Read-Many (WORM) capability for selected applications and configurations.

AIT-2 Turbo
AIT-2 Turbo model doubles the native performance of AIT-2 (from 6MB/s to 12 MB/s), and increases native capacity an incredible 60% (from 50GB to up to 80 GB). AIT-2 Turbo also offers a number of unique features, including WORM. In addition, AIT-2 Turbo offers the ability to choose between media with the performance enhancing MIC chip, or lower cost media without the MIC chip.

AIT-3
AIT-3 offers a native capacity of up to 100GB (up to 260GB with compression) and a native data transfer rate of 12MB/s in a compact 3.5" form-factor. AIT-3 continues the AIT reputation of providing the best capacity and performance within a 3.5" form-factor. The AIT-3 also offers the Write-Once-Read-Many (WORM) feature.

AIT-3Ex
AIT-3Ex provides up to 150GB native capacity (390GB compressed) and 18MB/s native data transfer rate. AIT-3Ex is another example of Sony improving on existing AIT formats. AIT-3Ex also offers the Write-Once-Read-Many (WORM) feature.

AIT-4
AIT-4 offers a native capacity of up to 200GB (up to 520GB with compression), and a sustained data transfer rate of 24MB native (a synchronous burst transfer rate 160MB/s max). AIT-4 also offers the Write-Once-Read-Many (WORM) feature.

AIT-5
AIT-5 offers up to 400GB of native capacity (up to 1.04TB compressed) on a single 8mm cartridge at a sustained data transfer rate of 24MB native. AIT-5 is backward compatible with AIT-3, AIT-3Ex, and AIT-4 media. AIT-5 also offers the Write-Once-Read-Many (WORM) feature.

AIT-6
AIT-6 is in a research and advanced development stage necessary to prove key media and recording head technology implementation. In keeping with the overall AIT roadmap strategy, this drive is expected to offer up to 800GB of native capacity (up to 2.08TB compressed).

Contact Sunstar if you need any additional information: 800.663.5523
info@sunstarco.com
Sunstar

DLT Tape Drives

2008-08-21T11:09:00.000-07:00

Quantum is the world's largest supplier of tape drives, and its DLT®, LTO, DAT/DDS and Travan-based technologies set the standards for tape backup, recovery and archive of business-critical data for the small business to mid-range enterprise.

Quantum’s drive family provides proven, highly reliable, and cost-effective tape drive solutions to help information-intensive companies protect one of their most valuable assets – their data.

Sunstar Company has for years sold Quantum DLT and SDLT tape drives (internal and external models and for tape libraries.)

Current DLT Tape Drives:

Compressed capacity from 80GB* to 1600GB*
Compressed performance from 21.6GB/hour* to 432 GB/hr*

Sunstar Company supports the follwing Quantum drives. Many are in inventory so please do call us if you want to purchase, repair or exchange drives.

DLT-S4 -800GB at 60MB/s 1600GB at 320MB/s
SDLT 600 -6 00GB at 36MB/s 600GB at 72MB/s
SDLT 320 160GB at 16MB/s 320GB at 32MB/s
SDLT 220 110GB at 11MB/s 220GB at 22MB/s
DLT 8000 40GB at 6MB/s 80GB at 12MB/s
DLT V4 160GB at 10MB/s 320GB at 20MB/s
DLT1 40GB at 3MB/s 80GB at 12MB/s
DLT-VS160 80GB at 8MB/s 160GB at 16MB/s
DLT-VS80 40GB at 3MB/s 80GB at 6MB/s
DLT 7000 35GB at 5MB/s 70GB at 10MB/s
DLT 4000 20GB at 1.5MB/s 40GB at 3MB/s
DLT 2000XT 15GB at 1.25MB/s 30GB at 2.5MB/s

Do let us know if we can be of futher assistance.

800.663.5523 info@sunstarco.com

Sunstar Company, Inc.

www.sunstarco.com

9 Track Tape Drives

2008-08-21T11:02:00.000-07:00

Sunstar Company has refurbished 9 Track Tape Drives in stock!

They are available from Sunstar in a variety of models.Our complete 9 track tape drive sub-systems includes; software, cables & SCSI controller suited for your platform.

In addition we repair defective 9 track tape drives and we can assist you with data conversion needs.

The following models are often in stock.
CIPHER M990 CIPHER F-880 - II Tandem CIPHER M995S MP 7000
QUALSTAR 3400 SERIES HP 88780B M4 DATA 9914 Overland Data 5622

Do contact us if we can be of assistance.
info@sunstarco.com 800.663.5523
www.sunstarco.com

Exabyte 8mm Tape Drives

2008-08-21T10:49:00.000-07:00

Sunstar Company has in inventory legacy Exabyte 8mm Tape Drives.

Not that popular anymore these drives had their time in the limelight however there are hundred of thousands out there and many are still in use. Be it in a library or stand alone we can support you.

Should you need to repair or replace one of these drives, please do contact Sunstar Company.
Some of the models we support in no particular order:

EXABYTE 8200 EXABYTE 8500 EXABYTE MAMMOTH LT EXABYTE MAMMOTH
EXABYTE MAMMOTH-2 EXABYTE ELLIANT 820 Exabyte RakPak
Exabyte M2TM w/Fibre Channel Exabyte VXATM -1 Exabyte VXA-1 w/FireWire
EXABYTE 8505XL IBM MAMMOTH 7208

Do contact us at: 800.663.5523 or info@sunstarco.com
Thank You
Sunstar

Arena RAID Arrays

2008-08-21T09:43:00.000-07:00

Take your pick. Arena manufacturers storage RAID arrays that seems to fit the bill. Know to be reasonably priced and you will certainly get your value.

In essence Arena offers their chassis with a choice of four host interfaces:

Certainly the most popular - 4GB Fibre
New to the market - iSCSI
New to the market - SAS
Not to forget the old standard SCSI

Presently Sunstar Company carries the vast majority of the Arena product line with the exception of their very small units. We offer their chassis supporting 12, 16 or 24 disk drives.

As for drives, Arena offers units supporting a choice of SATA or SAS drives.

Controllers and Expansion

Most units come with a single controller - no expansion - what you see is what you get. There are a few boxes that come with again a single controller that supports expansion. Utilizing the SA-6692J (SATA) or the SS-6692J (SAS) JBOD, the existing SAN can be expanded to support an addition 16 drives. Presently there are two models, the SS-8802R (24 Drives - SAS attached) and the SS-8801R (24 Drives- Fibre Attached) that support Redundant Controllers.

With or without.

Sunstar offers these units with or without disk drives. We can configure the RAID array for you with drives of your choice or should you prefer to purchase just the chassis this can be arranged.

The Arena 820SR NAS is a terrific box. We have sold numerous of these units - in many cases multiple units to our cutomer. It supprts CIFS and NFS and has redundancy built in.

Please do contact us if we can be of assistance.

info@sunstarco.com 800.663.5523

Many Thanks

Sunstar Company, Inc.

www.sunstarco.com

NexSAN delves into NAS for SMB

2008-08-18T11:51:00.000-07:00

Today NexSAN Technologies released The Edge NAS storage solution.

Geared for SMB The Edge has the capability support up to 84TB of Nexsan enterprise class RAID storage, Fibre connected to SATA or SAS storage with green benefits with Nexsan's energy saving AutoMAID technology.

Now we have the ability to consolidates file and block into a single solution with CIFS, NFS and iSCSI utilizing NexSAN hardware.

Based on Microsoft WUDSS. Microsoft WUDSS is a dedicated file and storage server technology designed for dependability, seamless integration and delivers the best value in networked storage. WUDSS integrates with existing infrastructures and supports heterogeneous file serving as well as backup of stored data.

Microsoft WUDSS web-based user interface makes management easy and enterprises can make full use of commonly used network environments and standard management software. Nexsan Edge Management GUI – NEM, provides a single interface to WUDSS services and Nexsan storage.

The Edge includes a complete set of data integrity and protection features. Battery backed RAID cache and multiple RAID levels, including hardware RAID 6, ensure data integrity during power outage or double drive failure. Built-in Microsoft snapshots provide data protection of both file and block storage.

Some facts:
Quad core processor with 4GB of memory and two 80GB drives configured in a mirror
Provides both file and block storage with CIFS / NFS (files) and iSCSI (block/databases). Supports up to 2000 volumes
RAID processes are off-loaded from The Edge NAS server and performed by the Nexsan storage system therefore maximizing NAS server CPU and memory performance
Microsoft snapshots provide data protection of both file and block storage offering 512 snapshots per logical volume for up to 64 logical volumes

Gor additional information vontact us at 800.663.523 oe info@suntarco.com

NexSAN SATABoy

2008-08-15T14:59:00.000-07:00

NexSAN Technologies introduced that SATABoy some four years ago. Prior to the to the SATABoy they had a similar RAID array called the ATABoy. The ATABoy used Parallel ATA Drives whereas the SATABoy uses SATA II Drives.

14 Drive solution in a 3 U Formation with the option of single or dual controllers. Each controller has 2 x 4Gb Fibre Channel Ports and 2 x Ethernet GigE Ports.

Present maximum capacity with 1TB SATA Drives os 14TB.

The highly scalable SATABoy enables cost-effective storage of large amounts of information online, while its exceptional performance ensures faster response times for mission critical applications. SATABoy is equally capable of delivering high IOPS for transactional applications and sustaining maximum MB/s throughput for high bandwidth applications such as streaming media.

SATABoy offers the energy saving benefits of Nexsan's revolutionary AutoMAID™ technology. AutoMAID™ (Massive Array of Idle Disks) allows SATABoy to place its disk drives into an idle state to conserve energy yet provide near-instantaneous access to data. This powerful combination of high performance with energy saving capabilities enables users to maximize the total return on their storage hardware investment. offers the energy saving benefits of Nexsan's revolutionary AutoMAID™ technology.

Standard warranty os 3 years with uplifts available.

SATABoy Features:
High performance RAID solution built around the latest high-capacity SATA disk drives.
All mission critical components, including RAID controllers, are hot swappable and completely redundant.
NexScan™, platform independent Web enabled GUI, provides simple system configuration, event and component monitoring from any standard web browser.
Multi-box capable - NexScan enables remote management and configuration of multiple arrays from a single GUI.
Up to 32 LUNS per controller
Dynamic spare pooling and dedicated spares; array verification
Dependable hot swapping of high capacity drives with the flexibility to support even higher capacities with Nexsan's proprietary RAID engine with soft-reconfigurable FPGAs.
Failsafe 24/7 operation for uninterrupted business continuity.
Three Year Warranty - Advance Exchange, 24X7 Technical Support.
High capacity / High-density - SATABoy features 14 drives in only 3u of rack space.
Arrays can be configured for RAID levels 0, 1, 1+0, 4, 5 and 6
OS independent - No special software drivers required to connect to any host system.
Integrated Fibre Channel and iSCSI connectivity for flexible implementation

Sunstar Company has been installing the NexSAN product line from inseption.
Clearly the NexSAN SATABoy is a leader in the field and can be incorporated in NexSAN's newest storage solution the DATABeast.

Similar to that of the NexSAN SATABeast, other than 14 drives as opposed to 42.

Please do contact us if you have any questions.
800.663.5523 info@sunstarco.com
Sunstar Company, Inc

NexSAN SATABeast and SATABeastXI

2008-08-15T10:33:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in the previous blog, NexSAN Technologies has two solutions that support 42 drives in 4U.

The first being the NexSAN SATABeast, up to 42TB in a single chassis with the current 1TB SATA Drives. Choice of single or dual controller. Dual function Fibre Channel and iSCSI connectivity with wire-speed performance. Flexible, scalable and completely OS independent, SATABeast easily supports a broad range of storage infrastructures.

SATABeast’s high availability architecture features full redundancy across all active components. Blazing wire-speed read/write throughput and high IOPS performance make SATABeast the perfect choice for data-intensive applications.

SATABeast from Nexsan are the first high performance, high capacity RAID storage systems to also offer the energy saving benefits of AutoMAID™ technology. AutoMAID™ (Massive Array of Idle Disks) allows SATABeast to place its disk drives to an idle state to conserve energy yet provide near-instantaneous access to data.

Some features:
High performance – over 700 MB/s sustained throughput
Reduced energy consumption and costs through AutoMAID™ technology.
All active components are redundant and individually hot-swappable
Highest density per rack inch
Supports RAID 0, 1, 1+0, 4, 5 and 6
Ability to manage and configure multiple Nexsan units from a single GUI
Anti-Accumulative Rotational Vibration design enables maximum drive reliability.
Supports multiple RAID sets and multiple volumes per set.
Horizontal midplane design promotes superior airflow and alleviates insertion stress points
Integrated Fibre Channel and iSCSI connectivity for flexible implementation
Completely OS independent. No special software drivers or server-based management applications required.
Online SATABeast delivers access to data up to 500 times faster than tape libraries and 20x faster than other MAID systems.
Embedded web-browsable GUI over 10/100/1000 port, supports email alerts and SNMP traps
Up to 2GB cache per controller
Supports up to 32 LUNS per controller

NexSAN has also introduced the SATABeast Xi . Almost identical to that of the SATAbeast other than that the NexSAN GUI and Fremont panel are different.
The SATABeast Xi is no different from the SATABeast other than it is ideally suited for the Mac world. The GUI fells like a Mac GUI. The SATABeastXi has been endorsed by Apple user worldwide.

The SATABeast Xi user interface provides access to your system from any standard Web browser including Safari or any host computer directly or via a LAN or WAN. The SATABeast Xi GUI is platform independent and requires no software or patches.

Three Years Advance Replacement Warranty,

For further information contact Sunstar Company:
800.663.5523 or info@sunstarco.com

NexSAN Technologies

2008-08-15T09:23:00.000-07:00

Perhaps you are looking to purchase a significant capacity of storage? Now with the 1TB SATA drives and larger Fibre and SAS and we know that larger capacity units are on the horizon what size SAN storage should you purchase?

I would like to introduce you to NexSAN Technologies, a company that we at Sunstar Company, Inc have had a relationship with for many years. In terms of basic storage they have in essence a 3U chassis supporting 14 drives and a 4U chassis supporting 42 drives.

The NexSAN SATABoy (up to 14TB in a single 3U chassis, with SATA Drives) is also available as the SASBoy (up to 4.2TB in a single 3U chassis with SAS Drives.)

Then there is the NexSAN SATABeast (up to 42TB in a single 4U chassis supporting SATA Drives) and the NexSAN SATABeast Xi (up to 42TB in a single 4U chassis in a Mac environment with SATA Drives.)

If you are building a Fibre or iSCSI SAN the SATABoy, SASBoy, SATABeast and SATABeast Xi are a great fit. Each chassis supports a choice of single or dual controllers, and each controller supports 2 x 4GB Fibre ports and 2 x GigE ports. Active - Active Controllers and since NexSAN is the actual manufacturer of all the hardware and software they are always able to tweak the storage to fit your needs.

Let us not forget the Green Features of these solutions. In the last month I wrote a blog illustration some of the features incorporated into these NexSAN Storage Solutions:
Here is a short synopsis of it's capabilities:

AutoMAID automatically reduces power consumption and heat generation on idle drives.
Trade-off between response times and power savings are user configurable.
AutoMAID behavior happens automatically and transparently to host – no software changes required
AutoMAID is analogous to power saving modes on laptops
Typical configuration settings: - 30% savings – after 5 minutes of idle time, drives are programmed to unload heads and slow down to 4000 RPM. Very fast recovery time.- 52% savings – after 5 minutes of idle time, drives are programmed to spin down. Recovery time on the order of 30 seconds.

NexSAN recently introduced a new solution known as the DATABeast, in essence a highly managed solution that can grow to several Petabytes in a single rack. This is a scalable SATA/SAS solution in a high density, low profile form factor and I will discuss this solution in a future blog.

I will discuss these solutions in depth in their own blogs in the near future. In the meanwhile, please do contact us for additional information and pricing.

800.663.5523 and info@sunstarco.com

Sunstar Company, Inc. http://www.sunstarco.com/

8" and 14" Disk Drives

2008-08-15T09:06:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in a previous blog, Sunstar Company has as wide assortment of older legacy disk drives. From the early 1970's thru the early 1980's it was common to utilize the 8 to 14 Inch Drives. Hard to imagine that this was indeed the case - now we can get drives that fit into the palm of your hand with capacities that were never thought of then.

We have in inventory a small quantity of CD and Fujitsu drives.
Units are sold with a limited warranty - Note spare parts are not available.

Contact us at
800.663.5523 or via email info@sunstarco.com

Sunstar Company, Inc.
www.sunstarco.com

Old Hard Drives

2008-08-15T08:58:00.000-07:00

This is not our specialty, however we have in inventory many disk drives from multiple of manufacturers. These drives are not new, however they are/will be tested and will ship with some form of warranty.

We suggest that you look at the various pages on our site, unfortunately our drive inventory is not accurate, so contact us below and perhaps we can be of assistance?

Direct links to the Sunstar Web Site.

Hitachi CDC Imprimis IBM DEC Micropolis Maxtor Fujitsu NCR
Seagate Technology HP Quantum Western Digital
NEC Tandem Toshiba Unisys

Thank you for your consideration.

Sunstar Company, Inc
800.663.5523 info@sunstarco.com

9840 and 9940 Media

2008-08-14T11:14:00.000-07:00

Sunstar Company, Inc. is interested in purchasing your 9840 and 9940 media!

Perhaps you are changing formats or perhaps you no longer have the need for your older media, we at Sunstar are willing to purchase your entire stock.

We test every tape full length, on production drives to at least equivalent to ANSI Standards for new media.

9840 Media - Capacity - uncompressed nominal 20 GB (9840)
Tracks - 288
Servo Tracks - factory prerecorded, factory prerecorded, do not degauss

9940 Media - Capacity - uncompressed nominal 60 GB (9940)
Tracks - 288
Servo Tracks - factory prerecorded, factory prerecorded, do not degauss

If we can be of assistance, please do call us at 800.663.5523 or contact us via email info@sunstarco.com

Sunstar Company, Inc.
http://www.sunstarco.com/

StoreVault folded into NetApp

2008-08-13T08:03:00.000-07:00

Network Appliance recently incorporated the StoreVault S550 into their lineup of solutions.

At one point in time StoreVault was a division of NetApp. Now that StoreVault is part of NetApp we should see more of a mix of sales. I am quite sure that we will see some S550's sold along with a larger FAS storage solution.

For additional information on StoreVault and NetApp Storage please contact Sunstar Company at 800.663.5523 or at info@sunstarco.com

3480, 3490 & 3490E Tape Drives

2008-08-12T15:08:00.000-07:00

Sunstar Company has in inventory a wide selection of 3480, 3490 and 3490E Tape Drives. All these drives have been refurbished and tested by our in-house engineers.

The 3480 Tape format was introduced by IBM in 1984. The 3480 tape drive was a popular drive due to it’s speed, reliability, durability and low media cost. The tape is ½” wide and is packaged in a 4"x5"x1" cartridge. The cartridge contains a single reel and there is a take-up reel is inside the tape drive.

Initially the 3480 was designed to attach to a mainframe computer and communicate through a bus and tag interface. Later models were made available with a SCSI and Escon interface. SCSI interface made it possible to connect 3480 family tape drives to personal computers, which enabled mainframe-to-pc data exchange.

The 3480 tape drive was the first tape drive to employ thin-film heads. The drive was able to read and write linear data across 18 recording tracks simultaneously with a relatively high data transfer rate: 3 megabytes per second. The 3480 technology replaced IBM's prior 9 recording tracks and achieved only 1600/6,250 bytes per inch of tape.

The 3480 format could store 200 megabytes of data per tape cartridge as opposed to the 100 megabytes on the 6250 1/2" tape reels.

IBM added a hardware-based data compression option in 1986; Improved Data Recording Capability (IDRC). This increased the capacity to 400MB’s per cartridge. The 3480 tape drive with IDRC was known as a 3490 Tape Drive.

IBM released the 3490E Tape Drive in 1991 enabling the drive to read and write linear data across 36 tracks with a capacity of 800MB’s per cartridge. The IDRC option allowed a capacity of up to 2400MB’s.

The 3490E tape drive was able to read data written on 3480 and 3490 tape drives. Some the 3490E tape drives were capable of writing 348, 3490 and 3490E formats. The 3490E media is the same as the 3480 media, except that it is longer.

IBM installed their 3490E drives within their 3494 library. A fully laden 3494 library was capable of holding up to 32 drives and 6,240 cartridges.

All three formats were also made available with an Auto Cartridge Loader (ACL) with different capacities. Capacities ranged from 7 cartridges to 60.

Other manufacturers of 3480, 3490 and 3490E tape drives included Fujitsu, M4 Data, Overland Data, StorageTek and Victor Data Systems (VDS).

Some of the model on hand:
DEC TKZ60, TKZ61, TKZ62, TKZ64 FUJITSU M2488C IBM 3490E
OVERLAND DATA TAPE EXPRESS T490E MP SYSTEMS MP 8436 PHILLIPS TD3620 TANDEM 5194 TANDEM 5196 FUJITSU M2483K/N & M2485K/N FUJITSU M2488E OVERLAND DATA TAPE EXPRESS L490E PHILLIPS TD3610 M4 DATA M490E
MP SYSTEMS MP 8436F

Sunstar Company continues to sell and refurbish 3480, 2390 and 3490E tape drives.

When purchasing from Sunstar we will need to know the following information:

Interface required
Single Load or Auto Cartridge Loader (ACL) Option
Table Top or rack mount

The 3480, 3490 and 3490E format was replaced by the IBM 3590 family of drives.

Please do contact Sunstar Company if you have any questions regarding these legacy tape drives. We repair, refurbish and sell these units for a world-wide market.

(800) 663-5523; (310) 330-2900; or by email info@sunstarco.com

Many Thanks

Sunstar Company, Inc

http://www.sunstarco.com/

Pivotstor Email Management Appliances

2008-08-12T13:46:00.000-07:00

New to the market in the United States the PivotStor EP Series of email management appliances provide an integrated suite of patented EP-Ware™ software solutions on a highly reliable hardware platform.

Models Available based on the number of mailboxes and size of the corporation.

EP-50™ Entry The EP-50™ is designed to protect up to 50 mailboxes in a small company, remote office or departmental environment.
This standalone unit features a quiet, book-sized design with a low power footprint

EP-1000™ SMB The EP-1000™ is designed to protect up to 1000 mailboxes in a small to medium-sized company. A 1U rack-mount, short-form design with a low power footprint makes it ideal for any SMB company, ISP or ASP provider.

EP-2500™ SME The EP-2500™ is designed to protect up to 2500 mailboxes in a small to medium-sized enterprise.
A 1U rack-mount, short-form design with a low power footprint makes it ideal for any SME company, ISP or ASP provider.

EP-2500+™ Enterprise The EP-2500+™ is designed to protect over 2500 mailboxes in an enterprise environment. A 2U rack-mount design with a low power footprint makes it ideal for any enterprise company, ISP or ASP provider. It can be customized to support over 50,000 users per node.

Sunstar Company is now offering these PivotStor Email Management Appliances.

Please fell free to call for more information 800.663.5523 or email us at info@sunstarco.com

Many Thanks

Sunstar Company, Inc.
www.sunstarco.com

Sony DIR1000 series

2008-08-12T13:22:00.000-07:00

Sunstar Company has in stock a wide complement of Sony DIR recorders. All units are Sony certified with a one year warranty.

We have the following model available:
DIR1000H - Data Transfer Rate up to 512MB/s - (64MB/s)
User data rate (record/reproduction) MB/s - 32, 50 & 64
DIR1000- Data Transfer Rate up to 256MB/s - (64MB/s)
User data rate (record/reproduction) MB/s - 1.3, 2, 4, 8, 16 & 32
DIR1000L- Data Transfer Rate up to 64MB/s - (8MB/s)
User data rate (record/reproduction) MB/s - 1.3, 2, 4 & 8
DIR1000M- Data Transfer Rate up to 128MB/s - (6MB/s)
User data rate (record/reproduction) MB/s - 2, 4, 8 & 16

Please call 800-663-5523 or contact via email info@sunstarco.com

www.sunstarco.com

2008-08-12T11:22:00.000-07:00

Sunstar Company, Inc would like to introduce you to the PivotStor AP Series tape libraries that provide reliable, automated data protection for organizations that require affordable unattended data protection, and have outgrown the capabilities of entry-level tape autoloaders.

PivotStor AP Series rack-mountable tape libraries are available in LTO3 or LTO4 models with the flexibility of either Fibre Channel (FC), SAS or SCSI/LVD connectivity.

2U rack-mount configuration - 24 tapes in two magazines, with a compressed capacity capability of up to 38.4TB
4U rack-mount configuration - 48 tapes in 4 12-slot magazines, with a compressed capacity capability of up to 76.8TB
8U rack-mount configuration - 96 tapes in 8 12-slot magazines, with a compressed capacity capability of up to 153.6TB.

The PivotStor AP Series installs easily and connects to either a server or SAN, featuring an easy-to-use operator control panel (OCP) and a web browser-based remote management user (RMU) interface to execute setup and diagnostics, check library status, operations and logs, and upgrade firmware.

Bottom line:
Cost effective; free-up valuable IT resources; minimize human error; backup more data quickly; generate off site archive copies of your critical data to meet your growing data retention requirements and lastly reinforce your business continuity plan.

For further information - please do contact us at 800-663-5523 or info@sunstarco.com

Many Thanks

Sunstar Company, Inc.
www.sunstarco.com

iQstor 4GB Fibre to Fibre SAN

2008-08-12T10:06:00.001-07:00

Sunstar company continues to deploy the iQstor Fibre to Fibre SAN storage solution.

The iQ2880 4Gb Fibre to Fibre storage system from iQstor delivers the high performance and reliability required by today’s demanding applications.

The iQ2880 is a full-featured 4Gb storage system, providing maximum flexibility, scalability and reliability for business, large and small. With all key internal components being hot-swappable and redundant, the iQ2880 ensures dependable data protection and delivery to help keep business-critical applications running smoothly. Integrated RAID level (0, 1, 1+0, 3, 5, 6) provides data protection and helps keep business critical applications running.

Each iQ2880 supports up to fifteen Fibre Channel drives providing 6TB of storage capacity using 400GB disk drives or 15TB with 1TB SATA disk drives. This capacity can be easily and dynamically scaled to 240TB by attaching optional J2880 4Gb FC Switched Expansion Enclosure with FC or SATA disk drives to the iQ2880 storage system, creating a tiered-storage environment, with Fibre Channel drives for primary storage and SATA drives for secondary storage

The iQ2880 combines enterprise-level features such as storage virtualization, snapshot, mirroring, remote replication, storage provisioning and automated capacity growth with fully redundant components, to deliver storage scalability, data protection, storage automation and management simplicity.

Links to some of the features offered on all the iQ28xx series of storage solutions:
VMV - Volume Manager Based Virtualization
VCS - Volume Copy Services
MSS - Managed Snapshot Services
RRS - Remote Replication - Synchronous
RRA - Remote Replication - Asynchronous
ICM - Intelligent Capacity Management
iQstor SAN Manager
iQstor System Manager
iQstor SBOD Manager

For additional information contact Sunstar Company, Inc. at 800-663-5523 or via email at info@sunstarco.com for additional information.

Fibre & iSCSI SAN Storage

2008-08-12T09:34:00.000-07:00

Sunstar has install a significant number of iQstor SAN's over the last six months. These SAN's have included a mix of both Fibre and SATA storage.

iQstor offers two solutions that have the ability to expand with expansion chassis with a choice of Fibre or iSCS attached controllers; single or dual options. In a nutshell each chassis supports a maximum of 15 drives and the 1st chassis can support a single or a dual controller with a choice of 4GB Fibre or Gigabit Ethernet iSCSI.

iQ2880 4Gb Fibre to Fibre Storage System - Simply put this system starts off with a single Fibre controller supporting Fibre drives in the chassis. The subsequent expansion chassis support a choice of Fibre or SATA Drives. (J2880 4Gb FC Switched Expansion Enclosure )

Similarly the iQ2880 4Gb Fibre to SATA II Storage System starts off with a single Fibre controller supporting SATA drives in the chassis. The subsequent expansion chassis support a choice of additional SATA or Fibre Drives. (J2880 4Gb FC Switched Expansion Enclosure.)

The iQ2850 iSCSI Storage System supports a choice of SATA or Fibre Drives. Like the Fibre Channel iQ2880 the iQ2850 iSCSI solution can support single or dual controllers and can expand with the addition of the J2880 Expansion Enclosure.

These iQstor storage solutions delivers the high performance and reliability required by today’s demanding applications, at an affordable price and combines enterprise-level features such as storage virtualization, snapshot, mirroring, remote replication, storage provisioning and automated capacity growth with fully redundant components.

Please do contact Sunstar Company at 800-663-5523 or info@sunstarco.com for additional information and pricing.

Sun 9840 and 9940 Tape Drives

2008-08-11T10:45:00.000-07:00

Sun Microsystems is now marketing the 4th generation of the Storagetek 9840 tape drive. All four drives have an average access time of just 12m/s.

The 9840 Tape Drives are small, modular, high-performance tape drives designed for both the enterprise and open-system environment.

Used 9840 and 9940 Sun/STK tape drives are now available from Sunstar and are eligible for Sun maintenance.

These tape drives are self-contained units with all the electrical and mechanical components required for the tape drive to function including external power supplies that attach to the drive.

The first generation drive was available with a native capacity of 20GB’s. The unit was sold with the following interfaces: SCSI, Escon, Fibre Channel, Ficon and Fibre Fabric.

The second generation drive known as the 9840B had the same capacity as the 1st generation, but the native data transfer rate increased to 19MB/s.

The third generation 9840C drive was released with an increase in the native capacity too 40MB/s as well as an increase in the data transfer rate too 30MB/s.

The T9840D is the 4th generation, access-centric, encryption-capable, tape drive from Storagetek and will have a native capacity of 75GB’s. The 9840D drive is backward compatibility to media that was written on early-generation 9840 drives – the compatibility spans an unprecedented four generations

The 9840 tape drive can be installed in a number of existing Storagetek tape libraries: L180, L700, L1400, 9740, L5500 and 9310. The 9840B and 9840C drive is currently available for the SL3000 and SL8500 library.

Older drives

T9840 and T9940 Tape Drives

T9840A HVD/ FC 20GB @ 10MB/s
T9840B E/ FC/ FICON 20GB @ 19MB/s
T9840C E/ FC/ FICON 40GB @ 30MB/s
T9940A HVD/ E/ FC 60GB @ 10MB/s
T9940BFC/ VSM 200GB @ 30MB/s

Sunstar Company, Inc
900 W Hyde Park Blvd. Inglewood Ca 90302
800-663-5523
info@sunstarco.com

S550 StoreVault from NetApp

2008-08-01T10:10:00.000-07:00

Looking for a reliable VMware NAS or iSCSI SAN Solution with a raw capacity of less the 12TB with software features that you would normally find in a $50,000.00 solution.? Consider the StoreVault S550 from Network Appliance, Inc. (NetApp)

Sunstar Company has partnered from inception when StoreVault released the S500. Bottom line - terrific solution, well price, reliable, easy to install & use and NetApp stands behind the StoreVault!

A StoreVault is an all-in-one storage appliance that is capable of NAS, SAN and DAS right out of the box. Capacities start at 1TB and can scale to 12TB.

The management interface is simple and intuitive, with a familiar Windows look-and-feel.

With support for NAS and SAN in one box, ease of use and simple management, StoreVault delivers unprecedented levels of flexibility, reliability and affordability.

Start by employing the S550 for simple disk-to-disk backup and evolve to a more advanced scenario-such as off-site replication for disaster recovery-using the same box.

The S550 brings enterprise-type data protection and system availability from NetApp to the SMB market for a price that can’t be beat.

NetApp is the industry leader in networked storage and the same technology that has been powering and protecting many large corporations and institutions for years, is now being tailored to meet the specific demands of smaller and mid-sized businesses.

Features:

As of this time the S550 supports 1TB, 750GB and 500GB SATA II Disk Drives.
Maximum of 12 Drives, however you need not install all at the get go. The beauty here is that you can increase the size of your RAID set as you grow.

Data ONTAP® for the S550, the highly optimized, scalable and flexible operating system that powers NetApp enterprise storage solutions, but tailored to meet the needs of smaller and mid-sized businesses.

The StoreVault Manager is a simple way to manage initial set-up and day-to-day storage tasks, with a familiar Windows look-and-feel, the learning curve is virtually non-existent.

Email downtime and data loss can bring business to a halt. Instantaneous backup and restore for consistent, multi-terabyte databases and email stores is now a reality, through StoreVault snapshot technology and our agents for Microsoft applications! Do consider taking advantage of SnapManager for Exchnage and SnapManager for SQL.

SnapRestore provides the capability to instantaneously restore files, directories or even an entire volume regardless of size. Because it is based on Snapshot technology, a file, directory or volume can be recovered to a particular point in time; and because the security attributes are retained with the Snapshot image, users can even recover their own lost files.

The S550 comes with the same support offered by NetApp for their top of the line FAS line. Offerings cover:

Direct access to global Product Support Centers via telephone, email, and web
Download of latest Software releases and Maintenance updates
Comprehensive Hardware Warranty Services programs
Unlimited access (24X7) to the Online Self-help System

For additional information please follow the link below.

http://www.sunstarco.com/Storage/StoreVault/StoreVault_Main.htm

For additional information please contact info@sunstar co.com or 800-663-5523

Thank You

Sunstar Company, Inc.

www.sunstarco.com

Tape is not for everybody

2008-08-01T09:36:00.000-07:00

Tape is not for everybody!

Tape is not designed to provide easy, immediate access to information; it's typically written in a proprietary backup format and can only be searched sequentially. It is designed for the infrequent and unlikely retrieval of backup data when primary storage fails. It is optimized for density not access.

Besides the inaccessibility of tape, there is the risk of storing important archives on a medium not intended for permanence.

Tape is used for periodically overwriting files, not for preserving valuable fixed content in a permanently etched, unalterable form.

Unlike certain types of optical media, tape is not native WORM compliant, and tape is susceptible to environmental influences such as magnetic interference.
While tape is adequate for backup data, it is not the ideal choice for high-value fixed content.

To discuss this further please contact Sunstar Company, Inc. 800-663-5523
info@sunstarco.com

Alternative solutions - such as disk and optical storage can be found at www.sunstarco.com
Many Thanks
Sunstar

PowerFile optical storage

2008-08-01T09:14:00.000-07:00

Sunstar Company, Inc recommends PowerFile, systems intended to promote longevity and data integrity for the long term – preserving your high value fixed content. This is unlike the high performance production systems, intended for fast writes and re-writes of dynamic data for the short term.

PowerFile delivers a new generation of advanced archive appliances with groundbreaking features and business benefits not found in traditional storage technologies on the market.

They combine permanence, accessibility, removability — all for less than the cost of tape- and disk-based archives.

PowerFile's archive appliances fit well within any enterprise that has adopted an ILM approach in creating storage tiers by enabling a true archive tier with different access and permanence requirements.

PowerFile complements existing storage infrastructures by offloading disk-based primary or nearline systems that are currently used to store fixed content.

PowerFile is designed to sit behind primary and/or nearline systems as a dedicated archival tier of storage. As standard network shares, they work with existing Information Lifecycle Management tools and can be easily integrated into any environment.

The Active Archive Appliance™ (A3) is an ideal archiving solution for medium and large organizations with mixed Windows/UNIX/Linux environments. Systems scale from 4TB to 240TB to handle large quantities of high-value fixed content.
The Touchless DR™ feature provides automated, active-active, Wide Area Network (WAN) data transfer between two Active Archive Appliances.
The Archive Facilitator™ seamlessly integrates with the Active Archive Appliance to deliver data discovery, contextual classification and automated archiving

For additional information:

http://www.sunstarco.com/Storage/PowerFile/powerfile_main.htm

Sunstar Company, Inc can be reached by calling (800) 663-5523 or by email info@sunstarco.com

Many Thanks

Sunstar Company, Inc.
www.sunstarco.com

Overland Storage ARCvault Series

2008-08-01T08:45:00.000-07:00

Sunstar Company continues to offer the full line of Overland Storage Tape Solutions. Introduced over the last three years the ARCvault series of Tape Libraries and Autoloaders target small to medium business. Supporting LTO tape drives and connecting to the backup server via a choice of SCSI, SAS and Fibre Channel interfaces.

Capabilities

12 to 48 Slots.
Capacity 19.2TB up to 76.8 TB (compressed)

Models

The ARCvault™ 12 Autoloader from Overland Storage delivers up to 19.2 TB of capacity. •Capacity up to 19.2 TB*
•Compact 2U form factor
•Easy integration into existing networks
•Easy media management via barcode reader
•Simple web-based remote management
•Choice of LTO-2. LTO-3 or LTO-4 drives

The ARCvault™ 24 library provides simple, automated backup, recovery and archive for medium-sized businesses while delivering the capacity traditionally found in more expensive tape libraries.
•Capacity up to 38.4 TB*
•Compact 2U form factor
•Easy integration into existing networks
•Easy media management via barcode reader and mailslot
•Simple web-based remote management
•Choice of LTO-2, LTO-3 or LTO-4 drives
•SCSI, SAS and Fibre Channel interfaces

The ARCvault™ 48 is the ideal backup/archive solution for IT environments with big-business demands and small-business budgets.
•Capacity up to 76.8 TB*
•Supports up to 4 LTO4 tape drives
•Compact 4u form factor
•Standard remote management and barcode
•Partitioning support included
•SCSI, SAS and Fibre Channel interfaces

These and other Overland Storage solutions are available through Sunstar Company, Inc.
Please do contact us by phone at 800-663-5523 or via email info@sunstarco.com
Many Thanks
Sunstar Company, Inc.
www.sunstarco.com

Atempo - Backup and CDP solutions

2008-07-31T09:34:00.000-07:00

Sunstar Company is pleased to announce that we recently signed on with Atempo. Atempo offers Continuous Data Protection and high-performance backup and recovery to secure long-term archiving.

Two of the solutions we would like to highlight today are: Time Navigator and Live Backup

Server Backup and Recovery - Time Navigator

Time Navigator delivers security to companies that operate in dynamic environments and demand increased performance, scalability and reliability for data protection. Time Navigator
uniformly and centrally manages multiple environments, provides an optimal combination of fast backups and restores and delivers multilayered security. This easy-to-use solution includes a Web-based GUI for remote administration and end-user recovery.

Combining the best of data protection and storage security, Atempo Time Navigator offers an advanced, high-performance protection and archival solution for heterogeneous environments.
Powerful and easy to use, Time Navigator makes it easy to manage enterprise data throughout its lifecycle and meet critical business requirements, from digital privacy and regulatory compliance to long-term archiving.
A unique approach to data restoration locates and restores individual files from any point in time and any tier of storage.
User single file access at any time
Full view of the file directories for fast and easy selection of data to restore
Convenient display of deleted files for easy retrieval
Disk to Disk to Tape backup functionality managed with VTL
Security & Compliance
Snapshot Management
Replication
Mixed SAN & NAS Architecture
Archiving Module
Wide Platform, Database, and Application Support
Reporting and monitoring tools

http://www.sunstarco.com/Software/Atempo/Atempo_time_navigator.htm

Continuous Data Protection for your Notebook/Laptop - Live Backup

Do you have a sales force of notebooks and workstations that are not being backed up? Atempo's CDP solutions continuously capture all data, including any modifications, from the moment it is created.

Say "Goodbye" to backup windows Live Backup uses Continuous Data Protection (CDP) so you never have to schedule a backup again
Perform Self-Recovery to restore files in seconds With the Recovery Assistant, users can use a simple wizard to recover their own files, which frees up your IT staff
Reduce data storage & network bandwidth. Live Backup only transmits the changed blocks of data, and only stores each file one time, even if it's on every laptop.
Protect your mobile workforce 24/7Live Backup protects data even when your users are disconnected or traveling
Restore entire systems through Bare Metal Recovery. With Full System Protection, users can perform a complete recovery in case of hard drive failure or laptop theft.

http://www.sunstarco.com/Software/Atempo/Atempo_live_backup.htm

Please do free to contact Sunstar Company so that we can schedule a live WebEx for either Time Navigator or Live Backup.

Many Thanks

Sunstar Company

800-663-5523 info@sunstarco.com