Forum Discussion

baltazarb's avatar
baltazarb
Level 4
13 years ago

Advice on Tape Library replacement

Hey Guys, We are looking to replace our STK L700 Library that houses our STK 9840C tapes drives with something else, and I was hoping some of you would give me advice on a replacement.  We only off...
7.1.x and Earlier
Backup and Recovery
NetBackup
  • teiva-boy's avatar
    teiva-boy
    13 years ago

    For the most part, most people are on the LTO bandwagon...  Which leaves you with Quantum (most popular), IBM (probably most expensive), or some of the smaller players like spectralogic (hungry vendor).  

    There is also HP too, and Dell.  Though, Most don't go out and buy HP or Dell libraries unless they are bundling it in with other hardware purchases.  

austin_lazanows's avatar
austin_lazanows
Level 4
13 years ago

Depending on what speed you are able to maintain to the tape drives (best is if you can stage to disk on the media server and then move it to tape after - multiplexing removes your ability to mount the tape and restore from tar format), take a look at LTO5 for the tape format. You have 1.5 TB native capacity, with 3.0 on a normal 2:1 compression. The good news means you can consolidate all those backups into a single tape for offsite + your catalog. 

 

HP libraries, Dell libraries, IBM libraries, Sun libraries, etc. are all great. The important part is getting one that suits the tape slot count that you need, has enough drives that you'll need, and has the ability to expand if you plan to grow rapidly in the near future. Rule of thumb is to size for the entire lifecycle of that tape library. Its even better to remember that you'll need a library & tape drive that can read your OLD tapes you used to send offsite for long-term retention. After that, its all about which brand you trust and the costs associated. A Backup Administrator's responsibility is first to make sure that the backups complete and work effectively and second to be good stewards of the end cost.