Scalar i500 Information

Integrating Management

Quantum's iPlatform architecture and integral iLayer management approach make backup easier to manage and give users more control over the process. The Scalar i500 features a server-class main controller, distributed control processors, an intelligent I/O system, and an embedded communications network. This iPlatform architecture allows the integration of Quantum's iLayer management features, designed to make backup simpler and more effective while eliminating the need for external library control software and servers.

iLayer capabilities include native partitioning, mixed media operation, drive hot swap, firmware management, proactive remote monitoring, intelligent diagnostics, configuration protection, and direct support for third-party SRM tools. The iLayer's integrated software approach means that the Scalar i500 can add new capabilities over time, providing long-term investment protection for end users.

The iLayer management approach extends across all of Quantum's iPlatform tape libraries and disk-backup solutions, allowing end users to manage their entire storage system more easily and to transition smoothly to next-generation backup solutions.

The Scalar i500 leverages ADIC's iPlatform architecture and iLayer management approach to integrate the industry's most advanced midrange management services inside the library, including proactive monitoring and remote diagnostics.

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Easy to Install and Manage

The Scalar i500 management features were designed with midrange backup needs in mind. Its user-friendly setup wizards make it simple to install. Its partitioning, mixed media support, remote monitoring, and automated diagnostics make it easy to operate and maintain. And its native support for Storage Resource Management (SRM) tools using the SMI-S interface standard means users can include Scalar i500 libraries, even those in remote locations, within their managed storage environments along with their disk and fabric resources.


As the industry's first midrange library with SMI-S support, the Scalar i500 can be discovered and managed by industry-standard SRM tools, including EMC's ControlCenter. Native SRM support allows users to manage all their Scalar i500 libraries, along with their disk and fabric resources, through a single, common interface.

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Proactive Remote Monitoring and Diagnostics

The iLayer management approach, common to all iPlatform libraries, uses proactive remote monitoring and relational diagnostic™ logic to improve backup reliability, reduce service calls by 50%, and speed up issue resolution by 30%.

Quantum’s proactive approach to diagnostics is fundamentally different from other, reactive library monitoring systems. When a sensor is triggered in the Scalar i500, the library determines the subsystems involved, gathers log data, references event history, and proactively emails detailed, context-sensitive information to administrators and the ADIC service team.

With the Scalar i500, users are warned about exceptions before they interrupt service, and fault conditions are identified quickly and certainly, even when they involve components that are outside the library. Many common fault conditions are designed to be user correctible with the help of the Scalar i500's intuitive service wizards.


The Scalar i500 monitors hundreds of library, drive, and media conditions, proactively warns users about exceptions via email, and uses integrated relational diagnostic logic to synchronize and analyze log data. ADIC's iPlatform diagnostic approach can reduce service calls by 50% and speed up issue resolution by 30%.
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The Midrange Library with Enterprise-Class Reliability, Availability, and Serviceability

The Scalar i500 offers industry-leading RAS features designed to meet the availability requirements of the most demanding midrange data centers. Hot swap drives are standard on all models. A full 2N power option protects the library and all drives from any single point of failure in the power system. The library's capacity-on-demand scalability provides non-disruptive growth, its flexible design makes it easy for users to add new modules, and its single, continuous robotics system provides fast, reliable cartridge transfer under the widest possible range of conditions.

The Scalar i500 also offers configuration protection, a standard feature that stores all library configuration data and event logs on a flash memory card, which can be backed up outside the library. The flash memory allows users to quickly and automatically transfer a library's configuration settings and diagnostic history to a replacement controller. The result is faster recovery from fault conditions, reduced management time, and increased reliability.


All of the Scalar i500 configuration data and event history is protected in a flash memory card. This card automatically transfers the library's configuration and diagnostic history to a new controller or to a replacement library.

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Easy Flexible Expansion, Single Robotics Design

The Scalar i500 combines a flexible, modular design for fast and easy scalability with a single, continuous robotics system for performance, reliability, and overall value. The result is a library that grows easily with users' data but provides the operational simplicity of a single library. With the Scalar i500, users start with one of three preconfigured base systems. When more capacity is needed, users add an expansion module, installing it either above or below the base system. All media and drives in the library is served by a single, continuous robotics system for easier operation, higher performance, and increased reliability—there is never a need for pass-through ports, elevators, or other complex tape transfer systems. The self-aligning expansion modules slide into place quickly without additional mounting hardware.


The Scalar i500 combines a flexible modular design with single, continuous robotics to provide fast, flexible growth while maintaining single-library simplicity, performance, and reliability. Expansion modules are added quickly above or below the base system without additional mounting hardware. With the Scalar i500 there are no pass-through ports.

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Capacity-on-Demand Scalability

The Scalar i500 uses capacity-on-demand scalability to allow users to increase usable capacity easily and non-disruptively as data grows. Users simply select an initial configuration that provides additional tape slots, preinstalled and ready to be activated using a simple software key. When all the base systems' tape slots are activated, users can increase slots available for growth by adding expansion modules. With capacity-on-demand, Scalar i500 users can expand their library capacity in 46-slot increments from 36 to 402 tape positions.


With the Scalar i500, users can add capacity quickly and non-disruptively by activating additional tape storage slots using a software authorization key.

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Flexible Configuration Options

The Scalar i500 is designed to meet the industry's widest range of midrange backup needs, allowing users to create the right sized system for their environment and to easily expand it as their data needs change. Users start with one of three base systems and add expansion modules as they evolve. Expansion is simple and fast—a single rack-mount frame supports the entire library, and self-aligning expansion modules slide easily into place without tools. To give users the maximum usable capacity, ADIC includes free access to all physical I/E positions In the Scalar i500, even ones located in modules where physical storage slots have not yet been licensed or activated.

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Intelligent Architecture

The Scalar i500 combines modular scalability with single-robotics simplicity, reliability and performance.

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