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Do any of you have experience and/or opinions on the pros and cons of LTO-3 Ultrium or SDLT tape libraries/drives/media? I'm working out next years budget and we do need an ATL to replace the unwieldy task of running individual backups on 15 different servers using DAT72. Either of those formats give us capacity far beyond our current needs but a couple of years out we will need that kind of capacity as our "paperless office" initiative matures and expands and as we add more services for our members (credit union). So anyway, I've sketched in an Overland LTO-3 Ultrium library with 1 12-tape drive and space for an additional 12-tape drive. Sound good? Please let me know what you think.

I don't have much experience with SDLT, but I love LTOs. Very, very, very fast, and seemingly quite reliable. I haven't had one fail yet--unlike certain other media I could name (DAT, ahem...)

Yeah, it's pretty alarming how often DAT tapes fail. Almost as alarming as the fact that my predecessors here kept adding servers and services and never developed an enterprise storage and backup plan.

I know the feeling.

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I know the feeling.

Yes, mmm, I see. And how does that make you feel, Ken?

<crouches into defensive position>

We have been using SDLT320 drives for several years now and not one problem so far. I have had faulty tapes, but I send them back and Maxell keeps replacing them.

I have limited experience with LTO, but understand that it is great. We went with SDLT for our library because we wanted backward read compatibility with our other sites DLT70 / DLT80 tapes.

Good info. In my case I'm making no attempt at compatibility with older tapes. If necessary the we can use the on-board DAT-72 drives to restore older data. And as those servers get EOL'd we'll pick up a DAT-72 external if we really think it's necessary.

BTW, I just got my new workstation in. Nice new Core-2 Duo with 2 19" LCDs. One of the few perks of moving from grunt to management. That and higher pay and having final say on the design of the enterprise systems almost make the endless meetings and paperwork worth it.

How many days after you moved to management did it take for your hair to develop points?

LOL

What is this "hair" you speak of?

Nah, it's not so bad. Having been a grunt for so long I don't think I'll turn into a "metrics Nazi" or an abuser of Dilbert-like underlings. I've worked in organizations where the "people upstairs" can only judge work in terms of their beloved metrics which have nothing to do with the quality of the work being done. We don't have a ticket system in place now and I won't be implementing one. Our organization had high marks for service from the other units within the company when I was hired and continues to have the same. I'm just here to rebuild and reorganize the infrastructure on which this concern runs into a modern, scalable, manageable system that can easily grow as we add branches and services. 5 years from now we'll have added 2 branches, moved another branch from leased space to owned space, and built and moved into a new Main Office from this 70-year-old barn we now inhabit. At that point I'll probably decide it's time to move on. If you look at this and guess I'm a start-up kinda guy, I am. I'll let the professional IS management types come and impose metrics and enjoy the benefits of the smooth-running system I built. That's why I left the last place as well. Coulda stayed and moved into a higher position there but the work I was interested in had already been done. Oh yeah, that and the C.S. degree plus 12 years experience = $$.

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I don't have much experience with SDLT, but I love LTOs. Very, very, very fast, and seemingly quite reliable. I haven't had one fail yet--unlike certain other media I could name (DAT, ahem...)

ditto myself

I vote LTO as well. I have one cutomer with an Overland Library and it seems to work well (after we had Overland out to replace the board in it =).

I'll tell ya one thing thou, I'd take a DAT72 any day over a DLT80 (at least the VS80 from hp/compaq). Bleh.

One of my "hobbies" was as at EMC Legato, supporting enterprise clients in the DR Business Continuity areas.
I have many thoughts, design ideas and comments floating around in my head....along with the voices! Oh those voices!!!

Ummm....back to the thread....

What is your budget going to support?
What is the amount of data you need to backup?
What is the backup window?
What is the infrastructure designed on - hubs or switches?
What software are you using to perform backups?

I would go LTO3, and we can discuss the details. There are many ways to get a bulletproof DR strategy without breaking the budget

"What is your budget going to support?"

I have $15K US ticketed for phase one, the Overland enclocure with 1 drive and room for a second, plus media and BackupExec Enterprise including remote agents for HP-UX, Linux, Windows Server, Exchange, and SQL this is $3K above the quote to allow for the kind of stuff that happens with these things.

"What is the amount of data you need to backup?"

Today: 120GB. Within a couple of years: A couple TB or so.

"What is the backup window?"

Diffs daily on most servers with fulls on Fridays and monthend. Unix host gets fulls 7 days a week. All done overnight.

"What is the infrastructure designed on - hubs or switches?"

In the main office I'm moving from the legacy dumb switches to 2948-G gigabit switches. Servers are already on their own 2948-G, safely in their own collision domain. I'm planning on setting up the backup server on a backup network and connecting the servers to that network for that purpose. A kind of poor-mans SAN if you will. The eventual goal in say FY 08 or 09 is a fibre-channel SAN.

"What software are you using to perform backups?"

Currently each server has it's own drive and I have a messy hodgepodge of different versions of BackupExec and ArcServ. The goal as above is to have a backup server with agents for the various other servers and services as needed. I like BackupExec because it's only slightly less of a Charlie-Foxtrot than ArcServe.