Tape Backup related

[scott_417]

I have one web/app server and one database server, both are DL360. Now I have following backup plans:

****First, the General Question on DL360****

1)when I order the DL360, will an adaptor card (Ultra 320 SCSI Adapter?) for external backup, be preinstalled?

<1.1>If not, do I have to intall one myself for the external backup?

<1.2>If I do need to install one, what should I choose (Ultra 320 SCSI Adapter or else?)? (The adaptor for the web server will backup about 80 GB, while the other for the database will backup 100 to 200 GB of data).

2)Removed.

3)Does the server's adaptor (such as Ultra 320 SCSI Adapter?) restrict the capacity of the backup? (Very important for me to know. If the adaptor does not have the restriction, I'll first use the lower backup capacity such as DAT 40, when higher capacity becomes more necessary, I'll replace it with the DAT 72. --Can I even do this?)

4)For the same adaptor (Ultra 320 SCSI Adapter), can I switch between the (backup unit) models such as from DAT 40 to DAT 72, or vice versa? And from to Ultrium 215 to Ultrium 448, or vice versa?

5) Can I use the server's USB port to do the backup?


******Plan One*****************

If I use the HP StorageWorks 1U Rack-Mount Kit, and I want this external device to host two (2) separate tapes, with the one tape for
the web server (80 GB data), another for the database server (100 GB data), I have the following questions:

1) In order to use the compressed mode, do I have to config/set it up (i.e., tell it to do the compression), or it will do the compression automatically?

2) Can I have the OBDR (One Button Disaster Recovery) function for the 1U Rack-Mount Kit?

3)The HP 1U USB Cable Option Kit online configureation indicates: (convert a 1U SCSI rack-mount kit to a USB interface to support the DAT USB drives) [Add $75.00].

<3.1> Does this mean I can only have either of SCSI adaptor or USB interface on the rack-mount kit? Can I have both (i.e., co-exist of the SCSI adaptor and the USB interface, for the purpose of backup)?

<3.2> After the said conversion above, will the USB interface only support the DAT backup? Can it also support the Ultrium?

4) Where to get Veritas Back Up Exec, Tapeware, and Arcserve (downloadable?)? When use any one of them, does it matter which brand (external backup equipment) to use? (I mean, will it support all of the brands DAT, Ultrium, etc?)

5) If I'll use the 1U Rack-Mount Kit and I want it to host two tape drives, one for DAT 72 and another for Ultrium 215, do I need the dual channel Ultra320 SCSI adapter or the single channel Ultra320 SCSI, to be installed on the rack-mount kit?

6) Do I need to install a Ultra320 SCSI adapter on the server in order to work with the 1U Rack-Mount Kit?

7) What is the difference between the increment and full backup? The pros and cons?

8) Can I use the 1U Rack-Mount Kit to do the full disk backup daily (such 2:00 am everyday)?

9) For the backup, in general, USB versus SCSI, which is better (speed and reliability)?

10) To configure 1U Rack-Mount Kit to have two tape drives, there are two combinations:

Combination One: DAT 72 for one drive and Ultrium 215 for another drive

Combination Two: DAT 72 for one drive and DLT VS160 for another drive

Combination Three: DLT VS80 for one drive and DLT VS160 for another drive

Which of the above combination is better?

///////End of Plan One///////////


*******Plan Two for Backup************

1)Suppose I'll have to use the NON-Rack external backup unit to do the backup, one for 36 GB and the other for 100 GB, which models come with the OBDR (One Button Disaster Recovery)? (How about the DAT 72 and
Ultrium 215).

1.1> How many rack (U) will each occupy?

////////End of Plan Two/////////////



Many thanksto help.


Scott

[Steven Clementi · Accepted solution]

Scott:


Let me try to answer some of your questions....

1)when I order the DL360, will an adaptor card (Ultra 320 SCSI Adapter?) for external backup, be preinstalled?

Yes, it can. Depends on where you order it from. Generally, you can get the reseller to pre-install adaptor cards for you.

I think you mean, does the server have a Ultra 320 SCSI Adaptor built in? If so, then sorta. The DL360 usualy has a Smart Array 6i (G4 model) which effectively can act as an Ultra 320 SCSI Adaptor, but it is a RAID controller. It is NOT recommended that you put a tape backup device on this controller, rather have a separate second SCSI controller for Tape Drives and Libraries.

<1.1>If not, do I have to intall one myself for the external backup?

You should be able to figure this out from my response above.

<1.2>If I do need to install one, what should I choose (Ultra 320 SCSI Adapter or else?)? (The adaptor for the web server will backup about 80 GB, while the other for the database will backup 100 to 200 GB of data).

Ultra 320 would be the better choice, preferrably dual channel for multiple drive/library configuration if necessary.


2)Removed. - In this case, I can not respond since well.. the question was removed. Best guess is "no".


3)Does the server's adaptor (such as Ultra 320 SCSI Adapter?) restrict the capacity of the backup? (Very important for me to know. If the adaptor does not have the restriction, I'll first use the lower backup capacity such as DAT 40, when higher capacity becomes more necessary, I'll replace it with the DAT 72. --Can I even do this?)

You should be able to use either of those drives as well as many others on an Ultra 320 adaptor including DLT, AIT, LTO.


4)For the same adaptor (Ultra 320 SCSI Adapter), can I switch between the (backup unit) models such as from DAT 40 to DAT 72, or vice versa? And from to Ultrium 215 to Ultrium 448, or vice versa?

With a dual bus adaptor, you would not have to switch.


5) Can I use the server's USB port to do the backup?

If you can find a decent enough Tape Drive that connects to USB, then there should be no reason why you could not use it. As for performance, you probably will not get great performance out of it.

As for your "Plans", I am still looking them over.


Steven

[Jaclyn Rothe]

1)An ultra 320 is only recommended for an Ultrium 960. An Adaptec 29160 card should be sufficient for anything upto and including an LTO 960. If you install an Ultra 320 you will have bottleneck issues most likely, and it is a bit over-kill for tape storage drives.
Proliants usually come installed with an onboard smart array card. This is not tape drive compatible, and will not work with your tape drive. You can request an adaptec 29160 card and HP will install one in the server for you, and HP and adaptec have worked together to configure 29160 cards for tape backup drives.
3) DAT drives can use a 2940 PCI scsi card. Their transfer rate is not that large that you need to have a faster scsi card.

See "recommended scsi card" document:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=lpg50063

4)If you want versatility with a PCI scsi card use an adaptec 29160 card this accepts DAT's>Ultrium's (see above document for models etc) Again I do not advise an ultra 320 card unless you want to invest in an Ultrium 960 drive.

Daisy-chaining is never recommended, and you will get best results for one scsi card for each back up device you plan to use at a time. IE: If a DAT 40 and an LTO 230 are connected to the serer at the same time you will want to install a pci scsi card for each of these drives... two 29160 cards.

5)USB DAT drives are newer drives. Make sure you have a USB 2.0 or your back up speed will be drastically reduced.

PLAN ONE
1)All HP tape drive self compress, and back up software compression whould alwasy be disabled

2)OBDR mode should work with a rackmount. HOWEVER it is only supported on Proliant servers with specific scsi cards...
see:http://www.hp.com/products1/storage/compatibility/index.html

3.1) If you convert your scsi rack to USB it will be a USB rack...
I seriously recommend using scsi instead of USB.
3.2) it will be USB compatible as far as I understand. So you should be able to change the drive from DAT to ultrium.
Again, for performance flexibility like you are mentioning I suggest scsi over USB.

4) Veritas is popular for backs ups and if you use this, you want to install the drivers on the tape drive from veritas.
go to support.verits.com for compatibility questions.
Veritas 10.0 was having issues with communication with some tape drives. However, they have released drivers recently.

Arcserve and tapeware require completely different 'driver' configuration to work the best with tape drives.

There is also an HP solution for back up software. You can try looking into Data protector.

As far as I am aware All of the above mentioned software will all work with Dat, DLT and Ultrium drives.

5)Again, you want one scsi card for each device you are wanting in your rack... daisy-chaining will seriously reduce your preformance. You can use a dual channel scsi card, but I again do ont recommend the Ultra 320 card for the drives you are mentioning unless it is an Ultrium 960.

6) Regardless if you are using a rack, internal or tabletop unit the scsi card will work with your tape drive.

7) There are incremental, differential and full backup. Usually a full back up is run once a week and a differential is run the rest of the time. Differential is when some data changes only that data is backed up because we already have the other data backed up in our full back up. An incremental back up is basically using one tape and backing up each day at the end of the last days back up. I dont recommend doing this... it is cost effective because you can use one tape... but what if something happens to that tape? Then you are out of luck and lose all your data. I recommend one tape for each back up and if you lose a tape you atleast have the previous day's back up and you are not behind too much. You can do a full back up every night if you wish, it depends on the amount and type of data you are backing up. If you choose the fullback up every night, make sure you use a different tape for each back up and ensure you store your media correctly.

Media care:
DLT
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=lpg50258

DAT
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=lpg50113&locale=en_US

LTO
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=lpg50093&locale=en_US

8)Regardless if you have a rack, tabletop or internal unit you can always do a backup whenever you want. You would schedule this in your back up software to run at 2am.

9)SCSI! USB tape drive are a newer technology and scsi has faster speed and better reliability and support.

10)DLKT VS drive are going end of line soon, and I do not recommend them. LTO 215 is end of line I do not recommend this.
I am not sure why you need a DAT drive, if it is for smaller backups then you could try a DAT 72 and an LTO 230. Personally I would go with 2 LTO 230's. This way you can use the same tapes in each drive if one drive goes down you have a back up solution identical unitl the defective drive gets replaced. SO you can lean on the functional LTO 230 and still have reliable back ups.
I dont think having two technologies is a good idea. Then you have to buy separate tapes for each. If you have two of the same drive you only have to worry about one type of tape and cleaning tape, and you have cross compatibility to both drives.
DAT 72 specs:


PLAN TWO
1) See http://www.hp.com/products1/storage/compatibility/tapebackup/ISS/index.html
For OBDR compatibility.
1.1> in a 1U rack it is one unit beside another unit. One full height unit will fit in each slot... so two unit will fit side by side(two total drives) If you get a half height unit like an LTO 448 then you can fit two LTO 448 in one side (one on top of the other), and two LTO 448 units on the other side (4 total drive)

Keep in mind most DAT drives are end of line and not being manufactured anymore, and will be out of support soon. So finding replacements will become increasingly difficult if your drive fails and you are out of warranty.
DAT drives out of support: DAT 8, DAT 24, DAT 40-some
DLT out of support: DLT1, DLT 30, DLT 70
LTO drives out of support: LTO 215 and LT0 230-some

[scott_417]

Like to say thanks first. I'll digest the much needed rich content in the response. And more question will follows :).

Also much appreciation for the response for such lengthy and tedious questions, which even made my typing finger sore, to say nothing of reading and responding.


Scott

[scott_417]

Thanks for the response. After reading through the response, I'll have further questions:

1) It looks like that the HP 1U Rack-Mount Tape Backup Kit only supports the Ultra320 SCSI adapter. I did not see the recommended adaptec 29160 card in the configuration selection list. I do not see the Ultrium 230, either. Please refer to the HP's site:
http://h71016.www7.hp.com/dstore/MiddleFrame.asp?page=config&ProductLineId=450&FamilyId=1409&BaseId=12372&oi=E9CED&BEID=19701&SBLID=&AirTime=False

2) If the Ultra320 SCSI adapter is the only choice for the Kit, can say that I'd better choose the USB interface, instead? Besides, nowadays, you can almost plug in to anything with a USB.

3) Is it true that the SCSI interface on the tape backup unit must be exactly same as that on the server? If so, I do not see the
29160 card on the configuration list for the server, either. And it even clearly states that for the HP StorageWorks external tape backup options, "An Ultra 320 SCSI Adapter is required". Please refer to HP's site:

http://h71016.www7.hp.com/dstore/MiddleFrame.asp?page=config&ProductLineId=431&FamilyId=1881&BaseId=12043&oi=E9CED&BEID=19701&SBLID=

--What should I do?

Thanks to share your view and comments.

Scott