Am 02.04.2007 um 13:41 schrieb Kevin Thorpe:
a little off-topic but I'm looking into replacing our old DDS4 tape drive which is now too small.
Our choice now looks like LTO, AIT or DLT as our total backup size is now 80Gb. Has anyone got any good/bad experiences with any of these technologies? I'm assuming that all will be recognised by SuSE on our servier which has both SATA and SCSI. What's the cheapest to buy and run?
We currently use LTO. It works ok - for a tape. As all tapes it is slow as hell for recovery case, a LTO media is mechanically robust but can't be used that often (we change media after 15 backup cycles and already had rejected tapes). Next time we need to change backup system we will go to USB/eSATA disks - one disk for each tape media we currently have in use: Pro: - you don't need an expensive tape-drive - you can already have 1TB per media - you can reuse such a disk much more often then 15 times - you can have fast as hell selective restores on every cheap PC - backup time via rsync like programs is nearly as fast as incremental backups, but you have full access to your complete backup without having to deal with multiple media - you can switch to next generation disks without a new expensive tape-drive Contra: - a single media is a bit more expensive - a disk is not as robust as a tape media - a disk _may_ not be usable as long as a tape media - at least 3.5" disks are a little bit bigger then LTO tape media This is not a solution for a 1000 people company, but for a server with up to a terrabyte online storage it is a robust, easy to handle, relatively cheap and reliable solution. It may not be a solution if you have to archive financial data for your local tax institute - IANAL. But if you "only" have to deal with important data it is better then most solutions I know about. Regards Ralf -- Brückner & Jarosch GmbH Van Roy's Law: ------------------------------------------------------- An unbreakable toy is useful for breaking other toys. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org