Archive to tape

[PcAid_Roei]

Hello all,

I'm looking for a solution to archive files to a tape drive.

The reason we want to use tape and not disk is the capacity of the information we need to move into archive and to cost of tape vs. disks.

I know that Enterprise Vault provides an archive solution but I couldn't find if the archive solution is for disks only or can provide a solution to tape as well.

Has anyone came across this need and solution?

[AmolB]

EV supports archive to disk only. 

[PcAid_Roei]

Do you know of a sloution to archive to tape.

We haven't purchesed anything yet. we are looking for an archive solution

[WiTSend · Accepted solution]

EV provides the capability to migrate archived data to tape.  The initial archive location must be discs, but there is a process to migrate older archived data off to a 3rd level of storage.   However, I would strongly recommend revisiting the decision to archive to tape.  Retrieval from tape can be a very onerous task for several reason.  It would more suitable to use some very inexpensive storage platform for the "final" resting place for the archived data.  This is true of any archiving solution.

[Rob_Wilcox1]

As WiTSend said ...

Yes archival is to disk, primarily.  From there a number of 'migrators' are available to push that data out to other areas, like NetBackup... and hence off to tape.

The idea is you keep some data online your uber-fast Exchange environment, some other stuff (older) in an online EV Archive, and some other stuff (even older perhaps) on to a 3rd tier.

[JesusWept3]

I normally try not to post just to echo someone's comments but I couldn't agree more with WiTsend, archiving to tape is a horrible horrible horrible solution and I've never seen it cause anything but issues Not through any fault or EV or NetBackup as they do exactly what they're meant to do, but the nature of tapes and restores means that everything can become incredibly slow and almost impossible if the tape it wants ism available and it's asking the admin to replace the tape with one where the item resides

[Darren_Locke]

Need to add more to this as tape is not great if many users need to access it, agreed. However, if there is masses and masses of application generated files, which need to live around for a very long time (maybe due to regulations), which will not be accessed very frequently and those that need to access it are trained in the what the access times will be like, then tape is actually a very good medium for this type of use case.

Darren

[PcAid_Roei]

The files that are ment to be archived are infact DCP files.

DCP is a digital movie copy for cinema. Because each movie is about 60-120GB we can't store them on another storage. Once the movies are shown in theater we tend to access them again maybe a year later or even more.

The reason we want to use an automated archive solution is to make sure that the storage doesn't get stuffed because the guys that prepare the movie for the cinema don't have the time to go through all the movies and archive them manualy.

This cause the storage to reach he's full capacity (68TB) and therefore the don't have any more space for any new movies until the empty it.

Is there an automated solution to download the data to a storage with a swapable drive that would be repalced once full?

[Rob_Wilcox1]

I don't know of such a solution.

[Dushan_Gomez]

Yes, I also looking for similar feature.

Because for a banking and financial company, the data must be kept 7 years retention.

Writing off to a tape with non Symantec EV aware backup is going to cause error in the client side ?

[JesusWept3]

well not that i'm trying to advocate a non EV solution, but you could just back it up to tape like you would any other piece of data and give it a retention thats controlled by the backup software.

That way if it needs to be archived straight to tape anyway, you don't have EV in the middle.
you can tell the tapes to not be overwritten, keep the set for X amount of years.

The only issue comes when someone needs it to be restored, the request will have to go to an admin who will restore it, rather than a user simply being able to double click a shortcut and have it retrieve.

And on top of that, if you have something accidentally recalling your file, either someone clicking it , or a file scanner going through and retrieving shortcuts, it could cause huge delays in other things that are required to be done in that time.


That being said, I don't know how long EV would take to retrieve a 22GB item from tape in one go.
It just sounds like the use of EV is over complicating the desired functionality and adding cost to the whole thing

[Dushan_Gomez]

Hm...

Yes that sounds interesting, so in this case the ideal way is to keep it in CIFS share and then autogrowth that CIFS share on the SAN array dynamically.

So in this case yes EV data cannot be offloaded to tape for easy retrieval.

[Dushan_Gomez]

Ok, so what is can be defined as the "final" resting place for the archived data ?

is it NAS with exapndable LUNs ?

[Brian_Spooner]

What about LTFS (Linear Tape File System) ? Is that supported?

The data would be stored in a regular directory structure on tape and accessed just like a CIFS share if I understand it correctly. I wonder if EV would even know the difference.

[Dushan_Gomez]

Hm.. how does one configure LTFS on WIndows server OS ?

[Brian_Spooner]

I'm sure it varies from vendor to vendor... It's not just a native feature in the OS that you turn on. I believe it was first offered with LTO-5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_Tape_File_System

A couple different solutions:

http://www.crossroads.com/products/strongbox/
http://www.quantum.com/Products/TapeDrives/LTOUltrium/LTO-5/LTFS/Index.aspx
http://h71028.www7.hp.com/enterprise/us/en/solutions/storage-linear-tape-file-system.html
http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/storage/tape/ltfs/index.html

[Dushan_Gomez]

Cool,

Thanks for the explanation Brian.

[Dave13]

Hi All,

Sorry - I am getting to this post a little late.

Please see EV Datasheet

http://eval.symantec.com/mktginfo/enterprise/fact_sheets/b-datasheet_ent_vault_file_system_archiving...

Final page (page 4) refers to archiving using QStar (who I represent). We support all archive technologies including tape, optical, RDX, Object Storage and Cloud.

You can use LTFS to write data to LTO5 media and we support all tape libraries using LTO5 drives from IBM, HP and Quantum.

http://www.qstar.com/products/qstar-software-products/archive-manager/

QStar Archive Manager is software and can be installed on your choice of Windows or Linux.

Regards, Dave