> I'll step back in here since people seem to want to slam > tape. I happen > to manage systems in a medium-size enterprise. One server alone has > 3.5TB of storage. For that server, we take weekly full > backups and plan > to keep (most systems are already there but this one isn't > yet) weekly > full backups with 4 generations, monthly full backups with > probably 12 > generations, and several years of annuals. We're looking at least 15 > copies of 3.5TB of data. This data is actually being backed over the > network to a tape library in another building. If you can > show me how > to keep 52GB of offsite data and quickly swap disk drives every week > without any application downtime, and do it all for less > than the cost > of tape, I'll buy you a beer the next time you're in my neck of the > woods. Using Rodolfo's estimate of 1.3TB costing 6K, backing up just > this server would cost about $240K. At 200GB per tape, this requires > 265 tapes. At $65 per tape, we're eating up $17K in tape costs. >
we use tape as well (G-F-S backups) and it has it's good as well as bad points, including jamming in the tape drive and requiring a system reboot to fix the issue (an ouch in my 7X24X365 world). with the advent of recordable 4GB DVD drives and the ability to setup Jukebox recorders to use them, DVD may be on its way to beoming a viable alternative to magnetic tape as least for longer term backups (mag tape for your dailies and DVD for the Monthlys) Prices should continue to decline over the next two years while record speeds increase. At about $1.00 or less per raw disk in bulk, it is also cost effective for longer term retention requirements. Anyone playing around with DVD recordable for backups now? They were playing around with the concept of R/W Optical tape for TB levels of storgae back in the 14 inch optical platter days, but I have not heard anything about that Tech in years, so I guess it has been tabled for the near future. You might want to google on Optical Tape....... -- redhat-list mailing list unsubscribe mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/redhat-list
