From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri May 14 01:30:21 2010 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 89493106564A for ; Fri, 14 May 2010 01:30:21 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from paul@gromit.dlib.vt.edu) Received: from lennier.cc.vt.edu (lennier.cc.vt.edu [198.82.162.213]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 40CA68FC14 for ; Fri, 14 May 2010 01:30:20 +0000 (UTC) Received: from zidane.cc.vt.edu (zidane.cc.vt.edu [198.82.163.227]) by lennier.cc.vt.edu (8.13.8/8.13.8) with ESMTP id o4E1ToL6007799 for ; Thu, 13 May 2010 21:29:50 -0400 Received: from auth3.smtp.vt.edu (EHLO auth3.smtp.vt.edu) ([198.82.161.152]) by zidane.cc.vt.edu (MOS 4.1.8-GA FastPath queued) with ESMTP id HVI82061; Thu, 13 May 2010 21:29:50 -0400 (EDT) Received: from gromit.chumby.lan (c-98-249-7-145.hsd1.va.comcast.net [98.249.7.145]) (authenticated bits=0) by auth3.smtp.vt.edu (8.13.8/8.13.8) with ESMTP id o4E1TnnS016637 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=AES128-SHA bits=128 verify=NO) for ; Thu, 13 May 2010 21:29:49 -0400 From: Paul Mather Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Date: Thu, 13 May 2010 21:29:48 -0400 Message-Id: To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v1078) X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.1078) X-Mirapoint-Received-SPF: 198.82.161.152 auth3.smtp.vt.edu paul@gromit.dlib.vt.edu 5 none X-Mirapoint-IP-Reputation: reputation=neutral-1, source=Fixed, refid=n/a, actions=MAILHURDLE SPF TAG X-Junkmail-Info: (0) X-Junkmail-Status: score=10/50, host=zidane.cc.vt.edu X-Junkmail-SD-Raw: score=unknown, refid=str=0001.0A020202.4BECA78E.00B5,ss=1,fgs=0, ip=98.249.7.145, so=2009-09-22 00:05:22, dmn=2009-09-10 00:05:08, mode=multiengine X-Junkmail-IWF: false Subject: Quantum SuperLoader 3 under Bacula on FreeBSD 8 X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 14 May 2010 01:30:21 -0000 I am currently assembling a quote for an LTO-4 tape backup system. So = far, I am looking at using a 16-slot Quantum SuperLoader 3 with LTO-4HH = drive as the tape unit. Married to this will be a server to act as the = backup server that will drive the tape unit using Bacula to manage = backups. The server will be a quad core X3440 system with 4 GB of RAM = and four 1 TB SATA 7200 rpm hard drives in a case that has room for = eight hot-swap drives. I plan on using FreeBSD 8 on the system, using = ZFS to raidz the drives together to provide spool space for Bacula. I = will be using an Areca ARC-1300-4X PCIe SAS card to interface with the = tape drive. My main question is this: is the Quantum SuperLoader 3 LTO-4 tape drive = supported by Bacula 5 on FreeBSD? In particular, is the autoloader = supported? The Bacula documentation indicates the SuperLoader works = fully under Bacula, though not explicitly whether under FreeBSD. The backup server will serve a network cluster of perhaps a dozen = machines with over 6 TB of storage, most of which is on the cluster's = NFS server. Does anyone have good advice on sizing the = spool/holding/disk pool for a Bacula server? Is it imperative to have = enough disk space to hold a full backup, or is it sufficient to have = enough space to maintain streaming to tape? (I don't have much = experience of Bacula, having used it only to back up to disk.) In other = words, do I need more 1 TB drives in my backup server? Finally, is 4 GB of RAM sufficient for good performance with ZFS? Will = ZFS on FreeBSD be able to maintain full streaming speeds to tape, given = the various reports of I/O stalls under ZFS reported recently? Thanks in advance for any advice or information. Cheers, Paul.=