Backup advice

I'm a newcomer to backup technologies but I've been asked to research
a possible tape drive purchase. I've been looking at LTO and SDLT
drives, specifically from Quantum, Overland Storage and Qualstar. I've
also heard some rumblings about some SDLT drives having problems with
damaging tapes but have been unable to find any difinitive answers.
Does anyone have any suggestions about which of these would be a good
solution? I'm looking at backing up about 400GB over a WAN, both
incremental daily and full weekly.

Any suggestions would be helpful.

Rick

Unless your WAN connection is ethernet I would seriously look into
disk rather than tape. You will kill any decent drive with the slow
input (shoe-shining). Disk is much better suited to that sort of
backup.

As for tape technologies....
Worked with SDLT for 4 years now and no out of the ordinary issues.
Solid from my experience. Not to say it's the way to go, LTO or even
AIT may be better for you but from the info you've given it's hard to
say. 400gb is not that much in todays terms, it will fit on almost 1
tape for some of the drives.

My suggestion would be a small disk array, enough to hold current data
plus 6 months growth, and a single tape drive connected to it. 400gb
on any of the drives you mentioned is less than 6 hours if you can
push it at all.

~F

On 6 Feb 2004 07:05:16 -0800, (Rick Jensen)
wrote:

I'm a newcomer to backup technologies but I've been asked to research
a possible tape drive purchase. I've been looking at LTO and SDLT
drives, specifically from Quantum, Overland Storage and Qualstar. I've
also heard some rumblings about some SDLT drives having problems with
damaging tapes but have been unable to find any difinitive answers.
Does anyone have any suggestions about which of these would be a good
solution? I'm looking at backing up about 400GB over a WAN, both
incremental daily and full weekly.

Any suggestions would be helpful.

Rick

In article ,
Faeandar wrote:
Unless your WAN connection is ethernet I would seriously look into
disk rather than tape. You will kill any decent drive with the slow
input (shoe-shining). Disk is much better suited to that sort of
backup.

Alternatively, use a backup system like Amanda that spools backup
images to a holding disk and thence to tape once that backup set is
full, rather than feeding them straight to tape.

--
I've seen things you people can't imagine. Chimneysweeps on fire over the roofs
of London. I've watched kite-strings glitter in the sun at Hyde Park Gate. All
these things will be lost in time, like chalk-paintings in the rain. `-_-'
Time for your nap. | Peter da Silva | Har du kramat din varg, idag? 'U`

I'm pretty sure all decent backup software packages have a "to disk
then to tape" option. Even Veritas... :-]

~F

On Fri, 6 Feb 2004 23:14:34 +0000 (UTC), (Peter da
Silva) wrote:

In article ,
Faeandar wrote:
Unless your WAN connection is ethernet I would seriously look into
disk rather than tape. You will kill any decent drive with the slow
input (shoe-shining). Disk is much better suited to that sort of
backup.

Alternatively, use a backup system like Amanda that spools backup
images to a holding disk and thence to tape once that backup set is
full, rather than feeding them straight to tape.

Do you use SDLT 220 or 320, or another version. The info I've been
getting says the 220 may have problems with tapes.

Rick

Faeandar wrote in message . ..
Unless your WAN connection is ethernet I would seriously look into
disk rather than tape. You will kill any decent drive with the slow
input (shoe-shining). Disk is much better suited to that sort of
backup.

As for tape technologies....
Worked with SDLT for 4 years now and no out of the ordinary issues.
Solid from my experience. Not to say it's the way to go, LTO or even
AIT may be better for you but from the info you've given it's hard to
say. 400gb is not that much in todays terms, it will fit on almost 1
tape for some of the drives.

My suggestion would be a small disk array, enough to hold current data
plus 6 months growth, and a single tape drive connected to it. 400gb
on any of the drives you mentioned is less than 6 hours if you can
push it at all.

~F

On 6 Feb 2004 07:05:16 -0800, (Rick Jensen)
wrote:

I'm a newcomer to backup technologies but I've been asked to research
a possible tape drive purchase. I've been looking at LTO and SDLT
drives, specifically from Quantum, Overland Storage and Qualstar. I've
also heard some rumblings about some SDLT drives having problems with
damaging tapes but have been unable to find any difinitive answers.
Does anyone have any suggestions about which of these would be a good
solution? I'm looking at backing up about 400GB over a WAN, both
incremental daily and full weekly.

Any suggestions would be helpful.

Rick

On 9 Feb 2004 09:16:17 -0800, (Rick Jensen)
wrote:

Do you use SDLT 220 or 320, or another version. The info I've been
getting says the 220 may have problems with tapes.

I've used both. I haven't found one to be more problematic than the
other. I doubt you can buy 220's anymore though, or if you can
they're as expensive as the 320's. I know we looked at adding 320's
post 220 install and they were the same price. Seems good but then
you gotta mix environments and all that crap. Ended up buying
front-end disk....

~F


Rick

Faeandar wrote in message . ..
Unless your WAN connection is ethernet I would seriously look into
disk rather than tape. You will kill any decent drive with the slow
input (shoe-shining). Disk is much better suited to that sort of
backup.

As for tape technologies....
Worked with SDLT for 4 years now and no out of the ordinary issues.
Solid from my experience. Not to say it's the way to go, LTO or even
AIT may be better for you but from the info you've given it's hard to
say. 400gb is not that much in todays terms, it will fit on almost 1
tape for some of the drives.

My suggestion would be a small disk array, enough to hold current data
plus 6 months growth, and a single tape drive connected to it. 400gb
on any of the drives you mentioned is less than 6 hours if you can
push it at all.

~F

On 6 Feb 2004 07:05:16 -0800, (Rick Jensen)
wrote:

I'm a newcomer to backup technologies but I've been asked to research
a possible tape drive purchase. I've been looking at LTO and SDLT
drives, specifically from Quantum, Overland Storage and Qualstar. I've
also heard some rumblings about some SDLT drives having problems with
damaging tapes but have been unable to find any difinitive answers.
Does anyone have any suggestions about which of these would be a good
solution? I'm looking at backing up about 400GB over a WAN, both
incremental daily and full weekly.

Any suggestions would be helpful.

Rick