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- Backup multiple streams of data at once to a single tape drive, interleaving data as you go. Now you can't get your data back without the multiplexing software.
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Legato uses option 3, which has worked for me for quite a few years now. There can be problems, and you can get screwed, but a bad tape will make a hash of any of these three options.
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Legato got a bad rep in their version 4.x software because thier indexing scheme was less than robust. I never had a problem with getting data off good tapes, even if I had to scan the entire tape to rebuild the online indexes. And of course the *size* of these indexes is a pain as well. I wish they had just taken some known good backend DB and used that instead. But with Legato 5.x, it's gotten alot more stable.
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Disaster recovery:
If you have a disaster and need to restore alot of data, you have to think of how bad a disaster it is.
If a major server goes down, but the backup server is fine, what's the problem? You're going to have to restore alot of data and that takes time. Multiplexing might slow down the restore if it's spread across the tape in lots of chunks, but I don't think that single savesets in one section of the tape will make that big a difference.
The legato disaster recover procedure works just fine. You get 15 day enabler codes right out of the box, so you don't have to worry about licenses in the short term. This gives you the time to get back up before having to deal with the backup system licenseing.
Ok, if I can resurrect this subject again, I have some more questions . Looking at the cost of replacing budtool is mucho $$$$, so we are thinking about considering the legato migration.
1) could you elaborate on "There can be problems, and you can get screwed"? I presume you mean more then having a bad tape....
2) "...gotten a lot more stable" What problems still exist with Legato 5?
3) You say with interleaving restore takes longer - by what magnitude? Restores are pretty long now with budtool tar's.
4) What is "legato disaster recover procedure" ?
----------- Jay Orr Systems Administrator Fujitsu Nexion Inc. St. Louis, MO