2007 - Can someone recommend a tape drive?

[CathodeRay]

I've been in this business for nearly 27 years, and I've found little that is more frustrating that the topic of tape drives and software.

I like Backup Exec for it's features, but it seems very complicated and expensive to get the right licensing/agents... in any event, I'm willing to stick with Backup Exec since it's very popular.

However, where I pull my hair out is with determining what TAPE DRIVE to recommend or include when spec'ing out a machine.

1. I'd like to have hardware compression since Backup Exec seems to report that type of compression moare accurately.

2. I'm tired of dinking around with little 20/40gb tapes... We need higher capacity... something like 100-200gb.

3. And I prefer it be on ONE tape... yes, we frequently have 100gb of data change daily, and can't/don't want to rely on users to change tapes in the mornings.

4. I would prefer NOT to incur the expense of a tape jukebox...

5. My age may show through here, but I need a drive that's EASY to install (IDE?) and doesn't require special hardware (i.e. SCSI).

What tape drive supports hardware compression, stores up to 100 or 200gb on one tape, is easy to install, AND is documented compatible with Backup Exec?

 

[LawnBoy]

SDLT and LTO drives are getting 600GB to 1TB on a single tape these days (maybe higher, haven't looked at them this year). But they're SCSI.

If you exclude SCSI devices then your choices are going to be very limited indeed. IDE does not have the throughput that SCSI does, and when running large backup sets it's nice if the job finishes overnight...

SCSI controllers are much cheaper than they used to be.

 

[CathodeRay]

Excellent... thanks for the reply... Installing a SCSI controller isn't *that* bad, I suppose....

Do you or others have recommendations on brands that are well-supported and compatible with Backup Exec?

 

[ymeq123]

We're using a tape jukebox from Overland Storage (not bad on price..SCSI) It came with an HP Ultrium-2 LTO drive. Pretty fast drive. 200GB (up to 400GB compressed).

We went with the LTO to get the speed and capacity. I do full B/U every night @ 300GB in 6.5 hours.

My line of thinking would be to get as much capacity as possible on the drive. Our amount of data backed has doubled since we bought the library and it will soon spill over to two tapes.

Next I'd like to also add a disk option like Idealstor or something similar.

 

[LawnBoy]

Up until very recently I would have recommended Quantum but after a deck failure and subsequent runaround trying to get it replaced I'll not deal with them again.

Overland is good if you're running Windows. I've had trouble with library drivers on linux and Netware.

Sony is good.

I agree with vmeq123, you can't buy a deck that's too big. Aim for 10x your current need.

 

[hmallett]

I'd get an LTO2 or LTO3 tape drive. I've used HP drives before, had only one problem, and the drive was replaced under warranty quickly.
Yes you'll need a SCSI card, but they're not that expensive (especially if you are shelling out for a tape drive). Performance is very good. We can backup at around 3GB/min on an LTO2 drive.

http://www.BackupExecFAQ.com

 

[wybnormal]

LT0-3 HP branded drives. IBM tweaks theirs to get a slight bit of increase in throughput at the expensive of being able to use anyone's tapes.

The NEO series from Overland Technology is awesome. I've used them for three years now in three different networks.

MikeS

http://www.packetattack.com

http://www.packetpress.net

Home of the book "Network Security Using Linux"

 

[steevej]

SDLT is Top of the pile right now with 1.6Tb/Tape, but they are expensive. I bought an older Storagetek (Sun) 9730 Robotic Tape Library, with 4 DLT7000 drives and 30(!) tape bays with the intention of eventually upgrading the 7000-type drives to SDLT320 which I am told have the same dimension and form factor ... The robot has to pick/place tapes from and to these accurately... But so far it isn't even working with the 4 (3 of which are bad) DLT-7000 drives.
All my Tape-certified friends swear by LTO 2/3, which offer native and compressed storage to 800Gb and speed.

FYI: SCSI is not SCSI and you have to ensure your card matches the drive before you power it all up - or you may smoke it.
SCSI, SCSI-II, SCSI-SE, SCSI-Differential (Low or High Voltage) and Ultra2 and Ultra3 are all diff - but some are compatible and will work - you just get crippled throughput.

Newer SCSI cards self-terminate, so all you have to worry about is a proper 2d termination at the end of the SCSI cable-chain. ;-) EZ

Now.. If someone can just help me fix these 3 bad DLT-7000...

 

[TomLet]

I've been using an Exabyte (now Tandberg Data) Magnum 448 with one IBM SCSI FH LTO-3 drive and love it. Fast with good capacity, almost 40TB compressed.

Good stuff.

Tom

 

[willjwill]

I use a removable disk solution that offers me 750GB native/disk. I bailed on backup exec for a software that lets me backup in native format and backup incremental changes but restore from them like they are a full. I don't need to use compression this way.

It was a little tricky to figure out but it works great now.

 

[k3n85]

We have a HP MSL6030 Tape Library w/ 1x LTO Ultrium3 Drive (960) which uses 200 (400 2:1) and 400 (800 2:1) depending on what types of files your backing up. Windows machines I usually compress about 1.5:1. We have also bought a backup standalone Ultrium3 960 drive for off site use.

Fairly simple setup but have been getting some sad hardware errors lately, with the drive being replaced once in 3 years. A warranty is a must.

With tapes only being $40-60 can't be that bad.

 

[LawnBoy]

I am paying $100 each for Maxell SDLT2 300/600 tapes.

 

[TomLet]

I'm paying $50 for Sony LTO3 400/800 tapes.

 

[LawnBoy]

That's a pretty serious difference in price!

 

[TomLet]

Actually, I pay $48.44 from CDW-G through my purchasing group. But the regular price at CDW for them is $51.99 for Sony, TDK or Imation LTO3.

 

[LawnBoy]

My price is also from CDW-G.

 

[DThornton123]

I've user the Overland PowerLoader (LTO3 and no longer made) and the ArcVault 12 (LTO2). We had a drive failure in the PowerLoader and a replacement library was shipped overnight the next day. This was with the swap support plan.

Both systems are fast and reliable. With a dozen or more tapes you don't have to rotate tapes out daily, one a week is fine.

In both cases we went with BE recommendations and use a SCSI HBA (host bus adapter). BE specifically recommends NOT using a SCSI RAID controller.

 

[pie8ter]

Stay away from Tandberg backup drives!!!

They break often. Brand new unit started to eat the tapes. You need to give your credit card to get things replaced. They think you won't return the faulty unit once they ship their replacement (read refurbished) unit.

 

[TomLet]

Actually, I've been using Exabyte (recently purchased by Tandberg) for years and have never had a problem with the service. Maybe that will change now that Tandberg owns them, I'm willing to give it time. Not much of a choice actually but I did get my library with a 3 year NBD onsite warranty with advanced replacement.

 

[k3n85]

HP 400GB Ultrium Data Cartridge: $40.00 x 5 = $200.00 per pack
HP 800GB Ultrium Data Cartridge: $57.00 x 5 = $285.00 per pack