General advice needed on backup systems

[Caroline Godwin]

Hi All

I need to buy a new backup system urgently, but I want to buy the right one for my needs. I have a stack of Travan tapes, and the network is a combination of NT and 2000. I need to back up approx 8gig every night.

I've had a look at Seagate and HP sites, but I was overwelmed by all the information. Is there a website which compares systems etc, or does anyone here have any ideas?

Thanks in advance

Caroline

P.S. This thread has been moved from  Storage>General to Tape Libraries and Drives. -HP Forum Moderator

[harry d brown jr]

a DLT 8000 tape drive, actually TWO in case one breaks down. THis should cover you for quite a while.

live free or die
harry

[Dirk Wiedemann]

Hello Caroline,

have look for basics at
http://www.competa.com/nl/nluug_paper.html
http://reversion.ca/backupinfo_swselect.html

hope this is helpful

[paul courry]

Harry,

Isn't a DLT8000 a little overkill for this situation? I would have thought a DDS3 or 4 or a DLT4000 or 7000 would have been a bit more cost effective or has the price come down and I'm out of touch?

[Vincent Fleming]

I agree with Paul - DDS3/4 have enough capacity (with some to spare) to put the whole backup on one tape, which would be sufficient. A DLT would be overkill, and probably cost-prohibitive.

Now, if you're trying to backup faster, then go to the DLT or LTO for speed - but it's not needed for capacity.

My suggestion is DDS4, as it is a little newer technology and probably will not be phased out for a while yet. DDS3 is closer to its end-of-life.

Good luck!

[Vincent Farrugia]

Hello,

I know I may not sound popular, especially with Vincent Fleming, but I would go for the DDS3, simply because it is more reliable than the DDS4 drive.

Our technicians here replace DDS4 drives to clients very frequently. Problem is, on such a small scale of tape and such a high density and compression, it is very easy for errors to occur on the media. The lower you go, the more reliable. It's true that DDS4 tapes are 150m long as opposed to the 125m of DDS3, thus offering more magnetic oxide to work with. But still, in a millimetre of tape, you would store more data than in DDS3, making it less reliable.

To tell you the truth, I'm not a fan of DDS technology; I feel that such a small scale of tape is not appropriate for today's high backup rate, they are simply not robust enough. Bigger tape, like the DLT80s, are much more reliable in this respect.

Just my opinion,
Vince

[Leif Halvarsson_2]

Hi

DLT devices is more reliable the DDS so it this is important the choice is simple. If DLT8000 is to expensive, have a look at DLT1 DLT vs80. This is not as fast as DLT8000 but back up as much data and is not as expensive.

[Caroline Godwin]

Thanks for all your replies. The cost of the system is an important factor, I would prefer one from the lower end of the price bracket.