Re: support for removable (RDX) disks

[Markus Iturriaga Woelfel]

>> 
>> No experience, hadn't heard of RDX.  When I looked them up I was
>> struck by the cartridge price compared to external USB or eSATA drives.
>> For similar capacity the cartridges seem 5x the price.  What is the
>> advantage of the RDX setup over just swapping in and out external
>> drives?
> 
> Sales hype? I dunno.


I think at this point it's only a solution in search of a problem. Even though 
most servers don't come with either eSATA or USB3, it's generally cheap to get 
a card that works. We are still running amanda in a combination of virtual 
tapes on internal disk and LTO tapes for long term storage (I have a script 
that once a month dumps all most recent level 0 backups to tape). I am guessing 
my next setup will ditch the tapes for external drives.
---
Markus A. Iturriaga Woelfel, IT Administrator
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
University of Tennessee
Min H. Kao Building, Suite 424 / 1520 Middle Drive
Knoxville, TN 37996-2250
mitur...@eecs.utk.edu / (865) 974-3837
http://twitter.com/UTKEECSIT

Re: support for removable (RDX) disks

[Gene Heskett]

On Tuesday, February 17, 2015 01:01:59 PM Jon LaBadie wrote:
> On Mon, Feb 16, 2015 at 12:43:51PM +0100, Stefan G. Weichinger wrote:
> > On 16.02.2015 10:02, Gour wrote:
> > > Hello, tried with forums, but got no reply, so I'm trying here
> > > now...
> > > 
> > > I'm considering to upgrade my current backup system consisting of
> > > Amanda and LTO-2 drive/tapes.
> > > 
> > > My needs are to regularly backlup my desktop machine (2X1TB disks
> > > in raid-1) and occasionally perform backup of my netbook (320GB
> > > disk drive).
> > > 
> > > Besides that I have collection of 13 LTO-2 tapes mostly
> > > uncompressed material (old hi8 movies and scanned negatives).
> > > 
> > > Considering that LTO tapes are quite expensive and I'd have to buy
> > > at least LTO-4 if not wanting to skip over two-generations lap,
> > > I'm considering to switch to RDX disks/cartridges and wonder if
> > > anyone can share their experience of using Amanda with RDX
> > > disk-based backup?
> > > 
> > > By looking at docs, I've found the following: "How To:Using
> > > removable hard disk changers as Virtual tapes" from the wiki
> > > (forum software does not allow me using URLs ), but would like to
> > > hear if/how Amanda is suitable for the task?
> > 
> > Interested as well!
> > pls share, people ...
> 
> No experience, hadn't heard of RDX.  When I looked them up I was
> struck by the cartridge price compared to external USB or eSATA drives.
> For similar capacity the cartridges seem 5x the price.  What is the
> advantage of the RDX setup over just swapping in and out external
> drives?

Sales hype? I dunno.

But let me point out that for less than a 100 dollar bill, tigerdirect has 
sata drive cages that can hold 3 sata drives. 5, standing in a row across 
the width of a 5.25" slot will cost a bit more.  Claiming to be hot swap, 
I crashed the system by ejecting a drive that was not mounted, so I have 
been doing full powerdowns since. It has a good sized fan on the rear and 
keeps my drives at not over 40C, so heat, even in the long term doesn't 
seem to be a problem.  I wish now that I had bought the 5 drive version, 
but thats hindsight.  Jim is using several of them at the tv station for 
backup raids and quicker than stink video servers.  We originally bought a 
pile of Apples huge pizza box servers for that, found they were too slow, 
and to add insult to $5500 each injury, they all burned up (literally) in 
under a year. So now he builds our own using intel stuff, centos and these 
cages.  They can read 4 tv channels at a time while recording 2 from a 
satellite feed.  The first one he built is still working fine although its 
lost a drive or 3 in the last 6 years.

The apples couldn't touch that with 4 of them.  And Apples warranty is 
100% at their convenience, the fact that you are off the air doesn't mean 
squat to Apple.

Cheers, Gene Heskett
-- 
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
Genes Web page 

Re: support for removable (RDX) disks

[Jon LaBadie]

On Mon, Feb 16, 2015 at 12:43:51PM +0100, Stefan G. Weichinger wrote:
> On 16.02.2015 10:02, Gour wrote:
> > Hello, tried with forums, but got no reply, so I'm trying here now...
> > 
> > I'm considering to upgrade my current backup system consisting of Amanda
> > and LTO-2 drive/tapes.
> > 
> > My needs are to regularly backlup my desktop machine (2X1TB disks in
> > raid-1) and occasionally perform backup of my netbook (320GB disk
> > drive).
> > 
> > Besides that I have collection of 13 LTO-2 tapes mostly uncompressed
> > material (old hi8 movies and scanned negatives).
> > 
> > Considering that LTO tapes are quite expensive and I'd have to buy at
> > least LTO-4 if not wanting to skip over two-generations lap, I'm
> > considering to switch to RDX disks/cartridges and wonder if anyone can
> > share their experience of using Amanda with RDX disk-based backup?
> > 
> > By looking at docs, I've found the following: "How To:Using removable
> > hard disk changers as Virtual tapes" from the wiki (forum software does
> > not allow me using URLs ), but would like to hear if/how Amanda is
> > suitable for the task?
> 
> Interested as well!
> pls share, people ...

No experience, hadn't heard of RDX.  When I looked them up I was
struck by the cartridge price compared to external USB or eSATA drives.
For similar capacity the cartridges seem 5x the price.  What is the
advantage of the RDX setup over just swapping in and out external
drives?

-- 
Jon H. LaBadie j...@jgcomp.com
 11226 South Shore Rd.  (703) 787-0688 (H)
 Reston, VA  20190  (703) 935-6720 (C)

Re: support for removable (RDX) disks

[Stefan G. Weichinger]

On 16.02.2015 10:02, Gour wrote:
> Hello, tried with forums, but got no reply, so I'm trying here now...
> 
> I'm considering to upgrade my current backup system consisting of Amanda
> and LTO-2 drive/tapes.
> 
> My needs are to regularly backlup my desktop machine (2X1TB disks in
> raid-1) and occasionally perform backup of my netbook (320GB disk
> drive).
> 
> Besides that I have collection of 13 LTO-2 tapes mostly uncompressed
> material (old hi8 movies and scanned negatives).
> 
> Considering that LTO tapes are quite expensive and I'd have to buy at
> least LTO-4 if not wanting to skip over two-generations lap, I'm
> considering to switch to RDX disks/cartridges and wonder if anyone can
> share their experience of using Amanda with RDX disk-based backup?
> 
> By looking at docs, I've found the following: "How To:Using removable
> hard disk changers as Virtual tapes" from the wiki (forum software does
> not allow me using URLs ), but would like to hear if/how Amanda is
> suitable for the task?

Interested as well!
pls share, people ...

support for removable (RDX) disks

[Gour]

Hello, tried with forums, but got no reply, so I'm trying here now...

I'm considering to upgrade my current backup system consisting of Amanda
and LTO-2 drive/tapes.

My needs are to regularly backlup my desktop machine (2X1TB disks in
raid-1) and occasionally perform backup of my netbook (320GB disk
drive).

Besides that I have collection of 13 LTO-2 tapes mostly uncompressed
material (old hi8 movies and scanned negatives).

Considering that LTO tapes are quite expensive and I'd have to buy at
least LTO-4 if not wanting to skip over two-generations lap, I'm
considering to switch to RDX disks/cartridges and wonder if anyone can
share their experience of using Amanda with RDX disk-based backup?

By looking at docs, I've found the following: "How To:Using removable
hard disk changers as Virtual tapes" from the wiki (forum software does
not allow me using URLs ), but would like to hear if/how Amanda is
suitable for the task?


Sincerely,
Gour