From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Jun 17 07:02:27 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D0EB81065684 for ; Tue, 17 Jun 2008 07:02:27 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from steve@ibctech.ca) Received: from ibctech.ca (v6.ibctech.ca [IPv6:2607:f118::b6]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 884DA8FC1C for ; Tue, 17 Jun 2008 07:02:27 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from steve@ibctech.ca) Received: (qmail 27354 invoked by uid 89); 17 Jun 2008 07:02:28 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO ?IPv6:2607:f118::5?) (steve@ibctech.ca@2607:f118::5) by 2607:f118::b6 with ESMTPA; 17 Jun 2008 07:02:28 -0000 Message-ID: <485761C4.8010609@ibctech.ca> Date: Tue, 17 Jun 2008 03:03:32 -0400 From: Steve Bertrand User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.14 (Windows/20080421) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Wojciech Puchar References: <48571BF2.8010407@ibctech.ca> <20080617084215.P6322@wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl> In-Reply-To: <20080617084215.P6322@wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl> X-Enigmail-Version: 0.95.6 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: FreeBSD Questions , Christopher Sean Hilton Subject: Re: Replacing tape changer with USB disk drives. 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: Tue, 17 Jun 2008 07:02:27 -0000 Wojciech Puchar wrote: >> >> Do the tapes get taken off-site, or do they sit in the same location >> that the servers will burn when a fire breaks out? > > probably sits on place, if not he wouldn't need tape changer, but would > change manually :) ...not always. A tape changer in some cases is the difference between someone getting off of their a**, and not. >> Once the network backup is complete, cycle this complete backup to >> tape which can be taken off site for longer term storage (after the >> network backup to 'hot' storage is done, the tape backup time becomes >> irrelevant). > > today tapes are so expensive (not just drives, but tapes) that it's > better to just have many disks and swap them. Expensive is in the eye of the beholder. I have DDS-1 tapes, in the drawer above my head that are from pre-2001 that I can still pull data from. As a matter of fact, I've never (knock on wood) experienced a bad tape (numerous types). In that meantime, I've electro-magnetized dozens of platter-based hard disk drives that just went 'bad' (and subsequently recovered/restored servers from live, and tape-based backup for). I personally don't think that swapping hard-disks (one, or many per day) is a viable, feasible or cost effective approach as a backup solution for long-term data storage, especially if you prefer to be able to recover the data. Here: - network to live storage (hourly perhaps) - live storage to tape - daily - weekly - monthly - yearly ...cycle them in that manner. No matter what anyone says, experience states that I will bet on my monthly and yearly tapes as opposed to hard disk every time when the CFO is under pressure to get that directory that was 'overlooked' at last fiscal tax time. Steve