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Re: Recommended tape backup software - tape vs disk



You and I must think on different scales...

30 days worth of the 155GB database that I manage, plus
the 40GB of flat files == 5.8TB

30 days worth of the 80GB database that I manage, plus
the 20GB of flat files == 2.4TB

30 days of the 1.5TB disk space that my co-worker manages
plus 200GB of flat files == 57TB.

That's 65.5GB of storage, or 546 120GB ATA disks.  The 
cabinets, controllers & power supplies needed to run all
those disks is _really_ expensive.  (If you want them to
be RAID5 secure, add, oh, 15% more disks, so that's 628
spindles!!)

Last, but _certainly_ not least:
If the machine gets destroyed (fire, etc), there goes a
huge business.  Can't happen?  I managed an 80GB OLTP 
database in the WTC...

There is NO WAY I'd allow an important production system 
without off-site tape storage.

On Sun, 2002-05-19 at 19:24, Alvin Oga wrote:
> 
> hi ya ron
> 
> > [snip]
> > > 	- tons of problems with tapes for "large amount of data"...
> > 
> > You get what you pay for.  At work, we use DLTs, and _never_
> > have problems, as long as we run the cleaning tape weekly.
> > Part of the reason is that DLT drives are made well, and another
> > reason is that these drives have hardware ECC.
> 
> <flame suit on>
> tapes are less reliable than disks... 
> </flame suit off>
> 
> and i dont ever wanna remove tapes... some moron always forgets
> to change the tape etc... or clean the head later
> 
> > > 	- i prefer disks for backups... fast, easy, cheap and
> > > 	(offline) live backups
> > 
> > On a production box of any size, that is totally impractical.
> > Tapes are, by their nature, removable, whereas, IDE disks are 
> > not.  SCSI disks are, but a 72GB disk is _way_ expensive.
> > So, on a box the size we use at work, in order to have a month 
> > of backups, you'd need 90 72GB SCSI disks. No fscking way!!
> > 90 DLT4 tapes, on the other hand, is expensive, but affordable.
> 
> precisely why tapes are impractical ....
> 	- but there are tons of data on existing disks ...
> 
> 
> 160GB ide disks is $150-$200 range... cheap...
> 	- 1Terabyte of backup in one 1u chassis.. no problem...
> 	and i do compressed backups of up to 3 or 6 months... dpeending
> 	on diskspace they willing ot buy and user data
> 
> IDE disks are ideal for backups... its already up and running
> and is live... within a few minute if one does 1:1 mirror backups...
> 	or goes live as soon as tar uncompresses on disks ...
> 	( no fussing on where is the tape.. and which tape...
> 
> 	- lost data need to be recovered and online within the hour...
> 
> 	- realtime transaction based data is a separate issue...
> 	( and they have the $$$ too ..hopefully ...

-- 
+---------------------------------------------------------+
| Ron Johnson, Jr.        Home: ron.l.johnson@cox.net     |
| Jefferson, LA  USA      http://ronandheather.dhs.org:81 |
|                                                         |
| "I have created a government of whirled peas..."        |
|   Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, 12-May-2002,                   |
!   CNN, Larry King Live                                  |
+---------------------------------------------------------+


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