Forum whore
Just spent an hour or so getting a stuck tape out of a Sony AIX tape drive (hey, I've never done it before). Hopefully it's not farked.
Anyways......excuse my ignorance but why are companies still deploying magnetic tape? Are conventional hard drives or blu-ray disks the way to go or do tape drives still have a useful role?
Pro's/cons please...............
Originally Posted by Kickha
Doesn't play well with others
Tape drives.
Cassette lives in my car's radio.
It's a lot easier to get a stuck cassette out than a stuck disc.
On a more serious note though, even a Blu-ray disc doesn't hold a fraction of what is needed for a full backup.
Forum whore
needs to work harder
There's something to be said for a backup that can be restored if the site which it was backing up was totally nuked in, for instance, an earthquake. I also think the "air gap" security of a tape kinda appeals in a world where actual faults are one thing, "getting hacked" is another and operator SNAFU's are more common than the previous two added together.
No doubt some SAN nazi's will quite happily sell you a versioned filesystem with an offsite backup using IP over SCSI and zzzzzzZZZzZzzZZzzzzzzzz. Sorry, narcolepsy don't you know.
Anyway, why would I give a shit. I just got one of these and if it won't fit on there it's someone else's problem. Yours, by the sounds of things.
Dave
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Forum whore
If you're referring to computer backup - DVDs (even Blu ray) don't have enough capacity for medium to large systems. Current LTO Ultrium tape drives are 400/800Gb (native/compressed) or better. In a 90x90x20mm package. The only thing that comes close is a hard drive in a removable caddy, but are you going to trust a courier to handle that (ie offsite storage) in a manner that will allow it to be re-used?
it's not a bad thing till you throw a KLR into the mix.
those cheap ass bitches can do anything with ductape.
(PostalDave on ADVrider)
Forum whore
Too slow (unless you want to pay Telecom megabucks for a decent fast link)
Backing up 50 odd gig from our Auckland site takes about 21 hours (because we don't have a fast link, but becuase its telecom it's still damned expensive)
it's not a bad thing till you throw a KLR into the mix.
those cheap ass bitches can do anything with ductape.
(PostalDave on ADVrider)
on the up
Slow? Don't talk to me about slow.
Due to the tight-arsed-ness of the director of our company when it comes to IT infrastructure I'm still trying to do differential backups of our main File server, Document server, CMS Server and Mail server, while also doing a Full backup of the 2nd work server. All of that onto one LTO jukebox (12 tapes/10TB compressed).
I'd love to have the option of a SAN halfway inbetween and syncing on the hour to that with diffs to LTO each night but its about 30 large for a decent 10TB SAN.
Maybe next year.
And I to my motorcycle parked like the soul of the junkyard. Restored, a bicycle fleshed with power, and tore off. Up Highway 106 continually drunk on the wind in my mouth. Wringing the handlebar for speed, wild to be wreckage forever.
- James Dickey, Cherrylog Road.
Forum whore
Not that much - how about an Intel "McKay Creek" -we've got one, iSCSI attached, running Open-E, and it's got 5 x 300g SAS drives and space for 7 more. IIRC it was about 10 -12K about 6 months ago. Or do you want fibre channel, etc?Slow? Don't talk to me about slow.
Due to the tight-arsed-ness of the director of our company when it comes to IT infrastructure I'm still trying to do differential backups of our main File server, Document server, CMS Server and Mail server, while also doing a Full backup of the 2nd work server. All of that onto one LTO jukebox (12 tapes/10TB compressed).
I'd love to have the option of a SAN halfway inbetween and syncing on the hour to that with diffs to LTO each night but its about 30 large for a decent 10TB SAN.
Maybe next year.
it's not a bad thing till you throw a KLR into the mix.
those cheap ass bitches can do anything with ductape.
(PostalDave on ADVrider)
on the up
5 x 300GB = enough to back up the email maybe Pete.
And I to my motorcycle parked like the soul of the junkyard. Restored, a bicycle fleshed with power, and tore off. Up Highway 106 continually drunk on the wind in my mouth. Wringing the handlebar for speed, wild to be wreckage forever.
- James Dickey, Cherrylog Road.
Come warm yourself by the fire
we have a newish HP tape backup at work and it is absolute rubbish. Blue ray is good - but the tech hasnt reached good pricepoint yet.
I had a good solid state backup on my last laptop - and at $200 it was cheap enough to fit in a server. However the true solid state drives are $$$$
I still believe the future is solid state - from everything like hard drives to engines.
But then we will all get fat i suppose - just like on Wall-E
Reactor Online. Sensors Online. Weapons Online. All Systems Nominal.
L-Plate Rider
It's already been said but ... we're backing up 700GB a night to a 400/800GB tape ... it takes around 5 hours. Blu-Ray could be an option for home but not for most businesses.
on the up
If you need to back up 5-7 TB a night you're stuffed unless you go the LTO jukebox unfortunately.
And I to my motorcycle parked like the soul of the junkyard. Restored, a bicycle fleshed with power, and tore off. Up Highway 106 continually drunk on the wind in my mouth. Wringing the handlebar for speed, wild to be wreckage forever.
- James Dickey, Cherrylog Road.
Forum whore
Yeah ok but I did say "and space for 7 more drives" and they dont have to be 300s - terabyte SATAs are pretty cheap now (although quite a bit slower than SAS)5 x 300GB = enough to back up the email maybe Pete.
it's not a bad thing till you throw a KLR into the mix.
those cheap ass bitches can do anything with ductape.
(PostalDave on ADVrider)
on the up
Yeah, you're probably right.
About $10K for a 20 pack of Caviar SE Green Powers is the cheapest I can find (have to allow for some units in the RAID dying - we're hard on drives).
Plus the $10-12K for the SAN you're suggesting.
means you pay over $20K for the hardware.
And how much for a rock-solid SLA? Probably about $10K for a three-year contract.
$30K. I rest my case.
And I to my motorcycle parked like the soul of the junkyard. Restored, a bicycle fleshed with power, and tore off. Up Highway 106 continually drunk on the wind in my mouth. Wringing the handlebar for speed, wild to be wreckage forever.
- James Dickey, Cherrylog Road.
Hardcore Biker
I believe if you have lots to move you can use a burst transmitter via satellite but it used to cost around $500/month for the gear. Not sure what the cost and options are these days
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