tapes to the wayside - go with removable drives?? 2

[TopRung]

I am exploring moving away from tape backups only because of the nightmares I have read about and heard from local professionals and the slower restores as compared to newer technologies.

WHat are your opinions on removable Firewire drives, USB 2.0, DVD archinving, etc. - and even other tape mechanisms.

I currently support a single tape config on two separate servers that use Veritas and Seagate tape drives. The file server backup is approaching 30 gig, so I anticipate having to use multiple tapes here shortly (even with the compression).

Advise and wisdom appreciated.

 

[Rols]

People will always argue for and against using removable drives for backups.

In my opinion its better to go with a tape backup solution for critical data. If you do it properly tape backups are far more reliable & cheaper in the long run. But because you are backing up such a small amount of data it also may be viable for you to use a removable storage medium.

30gig is a small amount of data these days, the latest tape drives (depending on which technology) can hold anywhere from 100GB to 500GB on a single cartridge. So im assuming that you are using a fairly old tape device.

If you compare the cost per MB - tape technology is cheaper. But dont forget that there are initial overheads ie: Tape drive, software etc.

Id say stick with your tape backups but upgrade your tape drive.

 

[TopRung]

I assumed they weren't that old. They were purchased about 1.5 years ago. I have inhereted this position , so I am just cleaning up basically.

Can you give me suggestions on good tape systems that have the higher capacity that you are referring to?

Thank you!!!

 

[DeBolle]

My experience in the past three years showed me that the modern tapedrives are really amazing devices. With 'modern' I mean the AIT-3, SDLT and LTO technologies as these are the drives I've experience with.
First, for small to medium sized bussinesses these drives hold all data on a single cartridge - the latest incarnations (SDLT320 and LTO-2) do 160GB and 200GB without compression. Depending on the data you backup the default compression expands this to 300GB to 400GB.
Second, the speed at which these drives can backup is more than a disk subsystem can deliver - I have made backups at the sustained speed of over 60MB/sec on a SDLT320, that is 200GB in an hour. Only a few SAN connected servers could sustain that speed...
Third, restore speeds are in the same league. Alas, my disk subsystems can't write data at the same speeds any of the tapedrives can read, so I had to setup multiple streams divided over servers (using Legato and Omniback here) for a disaster recovery test to restore everything in time.
I can't stress enough how important it is to have the SCSI controllers tuned to the max to deliver data to these tapedrives. Use the right (expensive) cables and terminators and don't connect more then two drives on one bus. Two LTO-2 drives swallow more data during a backup than a normal PCI bus in a server can deliver.
In short, where removable disk solutions for backups seem easy, cheap and fast compared to tapedrives, reliability and speed of modern tapedrives can't be beat. Backup solutions based on disk only (be it removable, replication or mirroring) aren't solutions imo - think rolling disasters.

 

[Rols]

DeBolle is spot on - nice post mate

Personally I like the LTO2 drives - they screem. But they also tend to be the most expensive.

Cheers

 

[TopRung]

Thank you so much for your responses. I truly appreciate your in-depth response DeBolle.

Much respect and thanx!



"May the best days of your past be the worst days of your future!"

 

[TopRung]

Oh, one more question..... Veritas or ??????

what have you all experienced as far as software packages and reliability/ease of use/support?

 

[Rols]

Veritas Backup Exec would be a good fit for you - very reliable & very easy to use - The support is the best Ive seen out of all the backup software packages - the knowledge base is really good.