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Backup Hardware

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by rigneyma

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We're thinking of higher capacity backup from our current DDS4 (20-40gb).
Does anyone have an opinion or suggested resource on which tape format is better
for these two scenarios? Option 1) 40-80gb: DLT1 vs. Mammoth/M2 and Option 2) 100-200gb: DLT220 vs LTO. We're not too interested in auto loaders in any format.

Thanks

5 replies

by cavedweller

I would look at 2 areas before choosing a tape format.

Usually, faster data transfer = higher price

You need to be able to do your backups in the time available. It is nice to not have your tape drive in constant use in case you need to do a special backup or restore.

You have to be able to afford the tape cartridges.

There is no one "best" drive. You have to do the data rate/cost analysis for your particular situation.

A final thought: I would also look at the mtbf rating of the various drives under consideration.

by mckaytech

I have about 40 DLT drives in service and have become quite fond of them in all the currently available formats so I would vote for the DLT for both options. At one installation, we do use a tape jukebox that has 5 DLT drives installed with a capacity of 96 tapes and that also works quite well (I recognize you're opposed to auto loaders at this point but it is one application in which they seem to work well).

Even without an autoloader you can create an array of tape drives for performance,security or capacity reasons and DLT drives can be made to work well in that configuration also.

However, I do not have personal experience with either Mammoth or LTO so I can't give you a balanced assessment.

A lot of the decision-making has to occur at the system level. For example, if you use a "snap-shot" archiving system in a mega-database environment, the speed of your backup subsystem becomes relatively less important because your backup window can be around the clock rather than only during off-peak hours. On the other hand, if you only have 4 hours to backup a terabyte of data, speed is everything.

regards!

paul

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