Here goes a LOOONG question.

[slicardie]

Hi there,

I'm working at a new job, and I found that everything is upside-down. I have a lot of issues to handle, but one of them is back-up. In my previous job, I used to do back-ups on CD's (I had to backup a little amount of data), but now I have to backup 35-50 GB of data on tapes. The problem that I found is that there are not any functional tape devices at my job, and we have to buy a new one. Since I have some brand new DLT tapes (and since they can store 40-80 GB), I am thinking to buy a DLT device. I don't want to install it on the server, which is a Proliant ML370, but on a Deskpro EN, which has a scsi bus. I heard that the scsi bus can be type 1, 2 or 3. Installing the DLT device is just as simple as installing a hard drive, a cdrom, etc? Or I really should care about the type of scsi bus and some other matters??

 

[comtec17]

Never run backups of your servers to a workstation. 35 - 50 GB of data does not seem like much, but you have to consider the bottlenecks you might encounter while doing the backups. For example, you have the device on your workstation, and it is a 1ghz processor, with 1 GB of RAM, but the bus speed is only 33mhz. You will more than likely only backup at 1 MBps or 60 MBpm or 3.6 GB per hour. Divide that by 35 - 50 GB and you will be backing up for around 14 hours.

In my experiences with backup, your best bet would be to attach it to the server.

 

[slicardie]

You're right, I hadn't taken that into consideration. What tape device would you advice me to buy? And, do I buy and internal or an external one?? (remember that the server is a Compaq Proliant ML370)

 

[comtec17]

I would buy an external DLT 7000 or 8000. Get an Adaptec 29160 or 39160 SCSI card.

 

[slicardie]

Thank you comtec17. One last question: I know I have an scsi card in the server, but I can't shut it down right now in order to see what scsi card is it. Do I have to buy an specific scsi card (like the adaptec 29160 or 39160) or can I use the one that is on the server? (which I actually don't know what card is, is there a way to know the manufacturer and model from NT?)

 

[comtec17]

You can find the model of the card by going to control panel-->SCSI Adapters.

It will all depend if the internal SCSI card is in use internally. I would not recommend hanging a tape drive off of an internal SCSI card if it currently has disk attached.

 

[qzq]

Also make sure that the card is the right card. The drive could be a HVD, LVD or SE. You will have to make sure that you have the correct card or you could damage your system.