[wellylug] Tape Backup Units

Wood Brent pcreso at pcreso.com
Mon Feb 16 15:49:46 NZDT 2004


> Up to 100GB of programs/settings/data

My 02c...

I use a 12/24Gb DAT drive. If you don't want to back it all in one hit, that
sort of capacity is readily available, generally in DAT, which is SCSI, but
also in Travan. Travan format tends to be considered inferior, but is cheaper,
& the drives are available in IDE and SCSI. If you have enough tapes, & use a
proper grandparenting model, or use incremental backups, it isn't too bad. A
full backup onto 4-5 tapes once every month or so & weekly incrementals is one
regime that may suit. Just note that incrementals can be a pain to restore
from, as you may need to go through the entire sequence to rebuild the
filesystem, but you save time on the backups. DAT & 8mm are the usual
medium/format in the 10-40Gb capacities, with Travan sneaking around in there
as well.

I'm assuming that (S)DLT, AIT & LTO tape systems are a bit excessive? Typically
$10,000+ but with larger capacities & autoloaders for multiple tapes. (I'm
currently looking at supplying a set of boxes with a 600Gb fileserver & another
600Gb odd on the LAN, in workstations, render farm, etc. A "proper" backup
capability will cost more than the all the other hardware combined).

I suggest you look at Arkeia for backup software. Free for some purposes, it
supports client/server backups, so your system with a tape drive installed has
the server, and it, as well as other systems, can have the client installed.
The client can backup over the LAN, & Linux & Windows clients are available.
Arkeia tends to force a rigorous tape library approach, which isn't really a
bad thing, but is not so suited to casually using whatever tapes you want
whenever you want.


What I have used for several clients recently is a removeable hard drive.
Either USB2 or Firewire external drives, or a hot pluggable bay with a normal
internal drive in a carrier. You can buy a couple of 120Gb drives & carriers
for less than a tape drive & tapes, and a weekly dump (Ghost is one approach
for Windows)
to copy filesystems onto the backup drive is simple & effective, & may be
adequate. The two backup drives are used alternately, so if summat fries both
drives during a backup, you still have a copy :-)

This also has the advantage that a properly mirrored backup drive becomes a
plug in replacement for a stuffed one, without even a restore being necessary,
or even removing the bad drive/filesystem, just change the boot device sequence
in your BIOS.

There is no right/wrong way, as everyone's requirements vary, just whatever
suits you...

Brent Wood




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