According to Heer, it is the most economically priced storage medium, with the lowest bit error rate, and best power profile compared to other currently available storage technologies. Contrary to popular belief, half-inch-tape storage technology continues to advance and thrive. One aspect that has not changed is LC’s reliance on tape drives rather than a disk-based option. In time, the library capacity will multiply simply as a function of generational drive technology improvements.” We’ll also be able to capitalize on ever-increasing tape-drive capacities. Heer explains, “Our plan is to procure maintenance in five-year increments and add just enough racks to allow for near-future growth, which realizes efficiencies in cost and overall size. The new technology represents a 50% or better density improvement over outgoing LC tape media. (There are an additional six racks nearby that store secondary copies of data on “midrange” class tape.) It is capable of storing 294 petabytes of uncompressed data, which is enough space to hold the entire written works of humanity, in every language, since the beginning of history six times over. The current main configuration is 23 racks, which contain 128 TS1155 (“enterprise” class) tape drives and 19,575 slots. This feature gives Livermore the option of growing the system, whenever necessary, simply by adding a frame or two. Second, the new tape library comes in a “rack form factor” (similar to traditional HPC systems, which hold their various components in multiple rack enclosures). “The Spectra libraries take up significantly less floor space than our previous libraries, which allows us to be more efficient and agile as the big computers come and go.” This physically denser storage solution is much better for LC,” says Heer. The new Spectra TFinity systems are novel in two ways: First, the tape cartridges they contain are stored differently, in terapacks (that is, 10 cartridges per pack), which means that more data can be stored in a smaller footprint. “This particular procurement was even more notable because we chose to go with a new vendor-Spectra. Moving to a completely new tape library is an enormous undertaking that’s only done once every decade or two,” says Todd Heer, who oversaw the procurement process.
#Spectra tfinity archive#
A well-run archive is a constant maelstrom on the backend, including data migration to newer technology and smooth, uninterrupted responsiveness to user needs. But, as with all technology, data storage hardware becomes antiquated and expensive to maintain, thus requiring significant upgrades and maintenance at fairly regular intervals (every several years). The solution is to archive-something Livermore Computing (LC) has been doing since 1967. Not only must the data be kept indefinitely, much of it is classified and must be protected with the highest standards of security. LLNL’s high performance computing users produce massive quantities of data, averaging 30 terabytes (the equivalent of 58 years’ worth of digital music) every day. Housed behind Sierra-the world’s 2nd fastest supercomputer-the new tape library helps the Laboratory meet some of the most complex data archiving demands in the world and offers the speed, agility, and capacity required to take LLNL into the exascale era.
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory ( LLNL) is now home to the world’s largest Spectra TFinity system, following a complete replacement of the tape library hardware that supports Livermore’s data archives.
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