Tape drives

  • Thread starter Thread starter benjrees
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benjrees

Another newbie question I'm afraid. We need to back up our main
fileserver drive on a weekly basis, and so, my thoughts turned to tape
drives - the idea being that it would be easy to transport something
(i.e. the tape) off-site. My thought to go with a tape drive (rather
than, say a DVD-burner) is that I presume the former would be easier to
use and also that each tape could take more volume. Is this right ?
We're looking to back up, maybe 30-40 Gb per week (NB: I know we should
be doing differential back-ups, but we just don't have the time for
such things, nor for cleaning up the drive all the time).

I've read things about how tape drives are v. expensive and now no
longer the best solution, but it seems the safest way of taking a large
volume of data off-site. Does that make sense ?
 
Another newbie question I'm afraid. We need to back up our main
fileserver drive on a weekly basis, and so, my thoughts turned to tape
drives - the idea being that it would be easy to transport something
(i.e. the tape) off-site. My thought to go with a tape drive (rather
than, say a DVD-burner) is that I presume the former would be easier to
use and also that each tape could take more volume. Is this right ?
We're looking to back up, maybe 30-40 Gb per week (NB: I know we should
be doing differential back-ups, but we just don't have the time for
such things, nor for cleaning up the drive all the time).

I've read things about how tape drives are v. expensive and now no
longer the best solution, but it seems the safest way of taking a large
volume of data off-site. Does that make sense ?
Click to expand...


IMO do disk-disk backup daily to big cheap IDE disks on your network
and then move some of savesets on the IDE disk to tape and carried
offsite.

You need to do a risk assesment to see what data needs to be removed
from the building daily, weekly, etc. WIth luck the daily data can be
burned into a CD and tucked into your jacket pocket and go home with
you.

I like DLT4 tape drives 35-70GB/tape and fairly fast. DAT has always
given me grief.
 
Another newbie question I'm afraid. We need to back up our main
fileserver drive on a weekly basis, and so, my thoughts turned to tape
drives - the idea being that it would be easy to transport something
(i.e. the tape) off-site. My thought to go with a tape drive (rather
than, say a DVD-burner) is that I presume the former would be easier to
use and also that each tape could take more volume. Is this right ?
We're looking to back up, maybe 30-40 Gb per week (NB: I know we should
be doing differential back-ups, but we just don't have the time for
such things, nor for cleaning up the drive all the time).

I've read things about how tape drives are v. expensive and now no
longer the best solution, but it seems the safest way of taking a large
volume of data off-site. Does that make sense ?
Click to expand...

If off-line storage and simplicity of use come first, tape indeed
seems to be the best solution.
DLT 8000 gives 40GB native which would be too little soon.
DLT VS160 gives 80GB native and that would be my choice.

Disk based solutions usually require a bit more attention than
just pressing one button (eject) and replacing media.
Cost per media is also a bit higher.

Somewhere in the future we might have removable SATA
drives, sturdy enough to work in a hot swappable RAID1
configurations; with a quick mirror rebuild feature.
Then you would just remove one drive and replace it with
a blank or old one.
 
Another newbie question I'm afraid. We need to back up our main
If off-line storage and simplicity of use come first, tape indeed
seems to be the best solution.
DLT 8000 gives 40GB native which would be too little soon.
DLT VS160 gives 80GB native and that would be my choice.

Disk based solutions usually require a bit more attention than
just pressing one button (eject) and replacing media.
Cost per media is also a bit higher.

Somewhere in the future we might have removable SATA
drives, sturdy enough to work in a hot swappable RAID1
configurations; with a quick mirror rebuild feature.
Then you would just remove one drive and replace it with
a blank or old one.
Click to expand...

Currently DLT VS160 drives sell for 880-900$, tapes 40-42$.
 
Hi,

From my experience, DLT or DDS kind of tape drive have more failure than
AIT.

If you compress your data, AIT1 would do, otherwise go for AIT2 or 3.

They do exist in SCSI or IDE version for AIT1 and AIT2. only scsi for AIT3.

Let me know if u need futher details.

Sam
 
benjrees said:
(NB: I know we should
be doing differential back-ups, but we just don't have the time for
such things, nor for cleaning up the drive all the time).
Click to expand...

You need to find / make the time.

How much time would you lose if your data went west?


Odie
 
From my experience, DLT or DDS kind of tape drive have more failure than
AIT.
If you compress your data, AIT1 would do, otherwise go for AIT2 or 3.
They do exist in SCSI or IDE version for AIT1 and AIT2. only scsi for
Click to expand...
AIT3.

Helical scan tape systems (DDS, AIT) tend to be less reliable than linear
serpentine systems (DLT, SDLT, LTO).
 
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