SUMMARY: Disk to Tape Virtualization devices

From: JV (jv711_at_yahoo.com)
Date: 03/11/04

  • Next message: Joe Philip: "init 6 not responding after Solaris 8 upgrade"
    Date: Wed, 10 Mar 2004 22:59:39 -0800 (PST)
    To: sunmanagers@sunmanagers.org
    
    

    I'm a little late in the summary, and perhaps my original question
    said the HW issues.

    Thanks to the people below for their contributions:
    "Anthony Talltree" <aad@verio.net>
    "Petri Kallberg" <petri.kallberg@sun.com>
    joe_fletcher@btconnect.com
    "David Foster" <foster@ncmir.ucsd.edu>
    "Brandon Cate" <bcate@ipmetrics.com>
    And a few anonymous netizens

    directions I had not considered:

    SOFTWARE:
    Sun StorEdge Utilization Suite (aka SAM-FS)
    http://www.sun.com/storage/software/data_mgmt/utilization/
    Allows some nice Hierarchical Storage Management tricks - like
    autoarchiving special filesystems to tape.

    HP STORAGEWORKS offers some good storage virtualization tools.

    FALCONSTOR http://www.falconstor.com - provides the same
    functionality with software. You can supply your own disk for cheap.

    AMANDA http://www.amanda.org - offers disk-to-disk-to-tape staging if
    one does not chose commercial backup software.

    Check out similar HW products
    Nexsan (http://www.nexsan.com - a strong interest in the NEXSAN
    devices.
    Cybernetics http://www.cybernetics.com/
    A UK product -
    http://www.transtec.co.uk/GB/E/products/diskstorage.html?fsid=76de7abd2a3630cc9bc6bba1aca99270

    A key feature is whether the disk2disk2tape array supports virtual
    tape devices (/dev/rmt/*cn). That feature appears to be worth more
    than $25K US.

    I seem to have more time and creativity than money, so I am playing
    with a SUN e450 with 20 slots for disks as my "array", ssh/rsync and
    looking at upgrading to Veritas Netbackup 5.0 later this year.

    Thanks to the following 3 fools for letting me know they are out of
    the office:

    Hautsalo Kari
    Schuetz, Henrik
    Brendan Doherty

    ---- original message ----

    >I'm searching for a disk backup acceleration solution for my backup
    >environment, often called "tape virtualization".
    >
    >I want an inexpensive IDE or SCSI disk array to receive backup
    >traffic over 100 Mbit & gigabit ethernet and store it for later
    >backup by Veritas Netbackup 4.5 MP6. I figure only having 500GB-1TB
    >of usable storage "hold" or stage these backups on disk directly
    >connected to the Netbackup Master, who can then deliver a steady
    high
    >I/O stream to LTO gen-1 drives. We are having an awful time with 100
    >Mbit Windows IP clients starving our tape drives and making them
    >shoeshine. The LAN just can't deliver as as fast the LTO wants to go
    >(15.9MB/sec).
    >
    >I have looked at high-end devices like the NetApp R150, it's just
    >overkill and overbudget. I have seen a StorageTEK device from afar
    >which emulates "/dev/rmt/*cn" paths to fool the tape backup software
    >into writing to this disk device. After playing with Netbackup 4.5
    >MP6, it appears that backup policies which specify DISK storage
    units
    >cannot multiplex (single stream at a time). Supposedly in Netbackup
    >5.0 this goes multi-threaded.
    >
    >StorageTEK
    >http://www.storagetek.com/products/tape_storage/tape_management_software/v
    irtual_t
    ape.html
    >
    >Quantum - esp. the DX30
    >http://www.quantum.com/am/products/eb/dx30/default.htm
    >
    >NearTek
    >http://www.neartek.com/vse2.cfm
    >
    >
    >I am looking for recommendations and experiences with these tape
    >virtualization units. Mgmt is partial to big recognized vendors like
    >Sun, IBM, StorageTEK, Quantum, NetApp etc with 24x7 1-800 support
    >lines. I'd appreciate some URLs with what you folks use.
    >
    >Thanks in advance,
    >Will summarize.

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  • Next message: Joe Philip: "init 6 not responding after Solaris 8 upgrade"

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