Backup Tapes: Alive And Kicking 409
yootje writes "The Register runs an article about the future of backup tapes, which looks pretty good. Although some people say backup tapes are dead, tape systems continue to evolve. To prove that, The Register intoduces some new products that are about to come, like the SL8500."
We still use them (Score:5, Interesting)
I remember using tape in my old C64. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:If it ain't broke... (Score:5, Interesting)
Although, we *do* also use live HD backups as part of our backup procedure -- just for a single nights backup. Sometimes you need to go back 5 or more days...
Definitely Not Dead Yet... (Score:2, Interesting)
Also, 270 some of our servers are on WAN links, between 56k and 256k circuits. Not exactly speedy when you think of backing up over the network. Also, the bulk of our data is done in our data centers - two of them. We have to have the data offsite. I don't want to try and transfer who knows how many terabytes of data over three T1's every night. We actually have higher data throughput using a courier!
Long live 4mm and 8mm tapes (Score:3, Interesting)
We still use some 8mm tapes to back up some RS/6000 systems. We use 4mm tapes for the Sun and HP servers.
I would like to migrate everything to one format, but red tape has thus far prevented me from doing anything about it. I have a proposal for converting to sDLT, but corporate policy forbids anyone except the purchasing department from speaking to vendors about pricing, and purchasing won't speak to vendors at all unless they have an authorized capital expense form. I can't build the business case to get a capital expense form until I get pricing information from the vendors. It's a bitter cycle
So, I sincerely hope my 4mm and 8mm jukeboxes stay alive and functional for the forseeable future, since I can't get approval to evergreen those systems with something cheaper and better!
Backup tapes (Score:3, Interesting)
But why oh why... (Score:1, Interesting)
That's a lot of money for a home user... Sure, tape backups are what you use in a corporate setting, but for home use, my dvd burner is about as good as it can get (unfortunately).
Got any idea where I can get a sub 300$ tape backup system?
Re:But why oh why... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: It works in Virginia maybe (Score:4, Interesting)
Glad that tapes work for you in Virginia. I live in the tropics where the air is balmy and airconditioning is at a premium. Tape media of any kind rots here. It is nothing to pick up a stored VHS tape and find it coated in a thick frosting of white mold.
This is why I record everything neatly on coconut husks:P
Re:You're living in the past (Score:3, Interesting)
We want to backup lots of stuff over 40Gb. May I introduce you to my good friend the autoloader [superwarehouse.com]?
Moreover, we use good ol' DDS-3 tapes. Cheap, reliable, fixed standards. We can't read anything new, but we don't have to; it's not like tape is supposed to be a portable medium.
As many posters have pointed out, tape Just Works, and it works damn well. Speed is the only issue we have, but we still do full backups of our major servers every night. Frankly, your idea of "a remote backup site" (over Internet? Hah!) would take just as long as tape, or longer.
This makes the case for good remote backup (Score:3, Interesting)
We've used these beasts on site and some of them are so large they need their own fire code certification.
I deal with tape every day at work... (Score:3, Interesting)
For home use, get a ancient PC, put a good hard drive in it, install Linux with Bacula (www.bacula.org) & only backup your data (not the entire OS) directly to disk. In the long run you'll be much farther ahead on cost & performance. If you ever have a crash, re-install the OS then restore the data.
I salvaged an 11 year old 486-66DX with 24mb ram. Put a 120GB HD in it, an ethernet card, and installed Debian with Bacula. All together it cost me less than $100 to provide a backup solution for three PCs. Everything is scheduled to backup automatically & I get emails if something doesn't work.
Anyway, that's my $0.02. Businesses obviously have different priorities.
Relative cost of disk vs. tape (Score:3, Interesting)
Anyone else heard this?
Re:But why oh why... (Score:4, Interesting)
Ebay's definitely the way to go. Good tape drives, being corporate-targeted fare, are built to last. And there are plenty of servers that came with a tape drive as a standard component that probably never saw more than a couple of dozen backups in their lifetime. That means a cheap, long-lasting tape drive for you.
To give you an idea, I got a Sony DDS4 (20G/40G tapes) about a year and a half ago for ~$275, IIRC. By looking at it, it was barely used, though eyeballs are admittedly pretty weak instruments here. In any event, it's been running weekly backups with no problems at all - no write errors, doesn't chew up tapes, test restores always work. Good enough deal for me...
Re:Tapes are here to stay (for now) (Score:2, Interesting)
I don't know what kind of 30 year old tapes you use, but a few years ago we transfered all of our remaing 9 track archival tapes back onto a hard drive prior to re-backing them up on to DLT, we had quite a lot of loss. These were stored in a datacenter environment not some basement.
The point is real long term is not really an issue because the hardware and drivers don't stand the test of time. So unless you are going to keep a complete old system around just to restore the tapes, you just have to resign yourself to transfering things to newer tape systems every so many years.
Re:If it ain't broke... (Score:5, Interesting)
Once a backup procedure is in place, it's simply a matter of cycling tapes, grep'in the logs and emailing/sms'ing any alerts. Every friday, send a tape off site, every monday get back the old off-site tape. Replace tapes as they break or after 1 year of service.
While your DVD drive might work, you're pretty much stuck in front of it swapping out 5-10 DVD-Rs for every 40 gigs of data. What fun. Me? I like to go home and sleep during backup cycles. Then scan the logs in the morning. It takes me all of about 30 seconds (including swapping the tapes).