On Mon 14 Feb, 2000, Lisa Paton <lcp(a)head-cfa.harvard.edu> wrote:
Thanks for the review Lisa, word from teh front-line is far more
valuable than marketing bumf.
<snip>
> supported.  I liked the fact that both QR and Veritas used an ISO standard
> tar format for the backup.  This ruled Legato out early, since they use
Hmmm, I suspect from what I've learned from Veritas and others, that
you don't see tar format on the tapes used for the basic backups. The
reasoning being that the backup software usually interleaves several
streams of data from clients to ensure streaming onto tapes (to extend
tape lifetimes as well as reduce the overall backup window). Cloning the
tapes in some manner allows the backup software to reduce the chance of
data loss AND also to rationalise the interleaving so you do get tape
files with coherent tar format inside.. but some folks don't clone
tapes, so they may well never get tar-readable tapes.
I'd be happy to hear otherwise, but I wouldn't place too much value
in that ISO standard tar formatting. I have to say that when I first
heard, from Veritas Reps trying to sell their product to me, that the
guys at CDC had nobbled gnu tar into an enterprise-class backup product
(GPL notwithstanding) I just chuckled. Valid approach, but when you're
backing up 100's of GB's or more, and spending through the nose for
an enterprise-class backup product that manages every detail for you,
the value of personally being able to grub through a tape using tar
begins to pale a bit.
> a proprietary format.  I was impressed that Jim Ward (President of 
> Workstation Solutions) came out to meet with me personally, AND could 
> answer technical questions that the Veritas SE couldn't answer.  WS impressed
> me as a small, technically savvy company that was very responsive to me
> during the evaluation period.  I had a couple small glitches that were
Now that sounds like NetApp - who still send out plenipotentiaries to
find out what their customers are really doing, and really need.
> Lisa Paton
>-- End of excerpt from Lisa Paton
-- 
-Mark                     ... an Englishman in London ...