SCSI backup solution

Am 01. May, 2003 schw=E4tzte Liberty Young so:

> Working for a small business, what would you all out there recommend for
> a backup solution? I'm leaning toward Tape backups, but the solution
> needs to hit these things:

Tape is good. Other removable devices could work. Don't forget about
archiving and revision control, not just, "oops, didn't mean to delete
that".

Remember that most tape manufacturers advertise the mythical "compressed
capacity" claiming 2:1 compression. In real life it's usually more like
1.6:1 or 1.7:1. If you're backing up a bunch of compressed data, e.g. jpgs,
oggs, mpgs, compressed tarballs, then you're going to get 1:1.

> 1) Be easy enough for somebody at the end of the day to just pop out a
> tape, pop it in, and walk away.

Several solutions for that. For hardware go SCSI and don't consider IDE.

> 2) modestly priced.

Some of the solutions are no cost ( *cough* my sig *cough* :), others aren'=
t.

> 3) Enough Linux support already there so i can get it working within a
> weekend.

Still several choices. Do you need support for any other OSen?

> With these in mind, what Tape Drives should I buy? I don't have a SCSI
> capable Server yet, but i believe that could be fixed with a pci card.
> Any suggestions for one of those?

Several cards capable of doing what you need for about $70. Don't be tempte=
d
to put anything else on the SCSI card, though.

Look at the Linux Tape Certification Project (http://www.LinuxTapeCert.org/=
)
for some test results from various tape drives. I know the guy who runs tha=
t
site :).

For a small setup I'd recommend the OnStream drives. They're about as
inexpensive as tape gets, but pretty solid. Go with something other than th=
e
DI30 (IDE) and SC30.

Avoid Travan.

DAT is OK. I've had severe problems with them in the past, but they've
supposedly improved. One of the problems is they're highly susceptable to
getting dirty, which bothers me in a dusty environment like Phx. The
improvements have been in better sealing the drives. Still need to keep the
tapes in tightly sealed cases when not in the drives. Should do that with
any tape, though :).

If you're looking at a drive or manufacturer not listed post it to the list
and I'll see if I can supply some info.

ciao,

der.hans
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