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тАО03-16-2010 06:38 AM
тАО03-16-2010 06:38 AM
C7973A
800GB
ULTRIUM 3
Solved! Go to Solution.
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тАО03-16-2010 06:49 AM
тАО03-16-2010 06:49 AM
SolutionYou will get various answer on this topic.
The real answer is as long as you feel safe relying on it for critical data.
Software packages such as Veritas Netbackup will keep track of how many times the tape has been read and written to and even provide advice on when its time to get new media.
I think the advice is overly conservative and designed to improve the profits of the companies that make the tapes.
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тАО03-16-2010 07:09 AM
тАО03-16-2010 07:09 AM
Re: how long does the tape last?
Pete
Pete
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тАО03-16-2010 07:22 AM
тАО03-16-2010 07:22 AM
Re: how long does the tape last?
Refer to the manufacturer, i.e., Sony. The criteria use to be number of time a tape has been used, ie. 32.
A tape in many data centers expires in a year, giving the following:
* How many times has a tape been used?
* Where did it come from, and when?
* Has it experienced any errors?
* Is it nearing a time when you should retire it to protect your data?
An archive stored in a perfect environment can be kept 30 years.
A good comparison is motion pictures, they degrad in quality over time. Old movies are stored in dry, static environments in old salt mines. Film, like DAT or DDS tapes, perish or oxidize, can't handle the sun light, etc.
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тАО03-16-2010 08:51 AM
тАО03-16-2010 08:51 AM
Re: how long does the tape last?
Some suggests to use "passes", how should I get this number from?
I understand what others are saying, the "standard" could be quite different, but I am looking for a certain of criteria, then we could make the decision on.
some of them being used since 2005, and mounted more than 90 times, would that be considered to be too old?
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тАО03-16-2010 09:12 AM
тАО03-16-2010 09:12 AM
Re: how long does the tape last?
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тАО03-16-2010 09:33 AM
тАО03-16-2010 09:33 AM
Re: how long does the tape last?
I could not find the number of read/write in NetBackup, but only mounts, is this number could represet reads/writes?
we have tapes being used since 2005, and mounted more than 90 times, are these too old?
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тАО03-16-2010 09:38 AM
тАО03-16-2010 09:38 AM
Re: how long does the tape last?
A mount is a good approximation. A verify pass after a write pass, would count as another read pass.
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тАО03-16-2010 09:45 AM
тАО03-16-2010 09:45 AM
Re: how long does the tape last?
A mount is good. Think about what a mount has to do; A mount reads to the start of record block which is a read / write.
Don't get conflicted with reading the entire tape for it will never happen. The wear and tear will always be on block address zero. How many times has block address zero been read / written / mounted to, in order to find the tape start record, which is probably address zero but may not be. Netbackup puts its own header explaning record format, compression and a bunch of other things on every tape.
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тАО03-16-2010 09:49 AM
тАО03-16-2010 09:49 AM
Re: how long does the tape last?
The quickspecs mention a 30 year archival life and 260 full tape backups.
Look at the bottom of the URL.