Actually, all the above (NetWorker, NetBackup, and QuickRestore) write their NDMP backups to tape in native NDMP format (which is of course NetApp dump format in this case), not their "normal" formats. I haven't gotten a clear answer from the vendors yet on this next issue, but it looks to me like none of the above do their multi-threading, multiplexed (many clients dumping to one tape drive) magic when doing NDMP -- but that's a feature in my book, since we can stream a tape drive with a single NetApp backup anyway. Nobody is shipping the SAN-tape-sharing solution yet, either.
We just got off a conference call with Legato and they were explaining that was a limitation in the NDMP protocol. We didn't get the impression that multiplexing/parallelizing was that important for a future rev of NDMP.
NetBackup (Veritas) can only dump to tape drives connected directly to an NDMP server (i.e. only to a locally-attached NetApp drive, or to a remote NetApp with attached tape). It cannot do NDMP backups to a "normal" NetBackup media server. I've been told that NetBackup can only restore NDMP dumps in place, too -- not to an alternate directory, for example (I haven't verified that with the vendor).
Hmm this could be deadly for us. Legato recommends direct attached tape drives which I was preferring and it makes sense for performance. But we got discussing this issue, and the idea of the NetApp spontaneously rebooting due to a SCSI bus error (from the tape drive) came up. For our new NetApp we cannot afford to have this happen. It's not so critical for our existing filer. Our existing filer runs OnTap 5.2.1 and has rebooted once (in approx 7 months) due to a SCSI bus error (a tape got stuck in the jukebox and the filer booted to try to clear the error). Although with newer revs of OnTap and the firmware, maybe this isn't an issue any more?
Legato hasn't yet released their NDMP support. They've told me that Networker 5.6 is coming out in April-2000, but that only adds the Celestra product for SAN-to-SAN backups. Version 5.7 will roll in Win2k support, to be released mid-2nd quarter, and not 'til Networker 6 will it have the more general NDMP support -- to be released middle of 3rd quarter 2000. So we have awhile to wait before Networker will be as "good" as BudTool (we hope) with regard to NetApp backups.
Yes, that's what they were telling us on the phone today.
QuickRestore says it can do NDMP dumps to both local/remote NDMP servers and to normal QR media servers, which is what BudTool can do for us. Dunno if it can partial restore to other than the original location.
That's a good question. I use that feature in BudTool all the time.
Oh yeah, QR doesn't yet support Win9x clients yet (only NT), which may or may not be a problem for some folks -- but the other products do so.
Currently no, but if we expand back ups to cover more machines on campus it will become an issue.
In short, we'll probably wait awhile to see what shakes out. BudTool is still working....
Yes that's what I'd prefer to do, but because we have this new filer coming in, it won't be put into production until backups are in place. And if we're upgrading our existing configuration, it makes more sense to make have a homogenous backup environment. Of course the fact that people want the new filer in last Nov doesn't help ...