Can I use a Worm/MO/CD-Rom jukebox with SQL Server?

A. Yes and no.

1. SQL can only access "disks" - so first the jukebox must be madeto look just like a disk or set of disks, complete with drive letters etc.There are a variety of products available to do this from Ascend, Kofax, OTGand Ixos to name a few. (I've mainly used Disk Extender fromwww.otgsoftware.com).

2. SQL needs immediate access to the data and jukeboxes/software typicallydon't offer this - they normally cache files to a real disk first. This alltakes time - seconds to minutes or more for large files. Having SQL's i/oengine backed up waiting for i/o from a very slow device (compared to disks) isa very bad idea.

I would recommend that instead of WORM/jukeboxes etc. you just buy anotherlarge raid unit with the largest disks you can find and create databases onthis raid unit and then mark them as read-only with SQL Server.