On Wed, 12 Apr 2000, John Stoffel wrote:
- Are you willing to spend the money on NDMP capable software and a DLT7000 jukebox attached directory to the filer(s)? That would get the network out of the equation almost completely.
I've seen several comments like this in the past and I don't understand them. Why do you feel it is neccessary to spend money on NDMP capable software to be able to use a directly attached tape drive? It probably
Yes you can use the native dump/restore on the filer and a shell script to manage it. (Which we may end of having to do, depending on the 'choice' of NDMP software solutions.) But you can do much more by using a commercial package.
- You get to use NDMP and avoide the insecurities associated with rsh.
- The ease of scheduling/rescheduling of backups with a commercial
package. 3) Ease of selection of files to restore. 4) File history (snapshots are great, but when users don't tell you they need a file until the snapshot copy has rolled over, they don't help you too much). 5) You get to beat someone else up when you're having problems with your backups. (okay relying on someone else can be a hindrance too.)
Those are the ones that pop immediately into mind.
One more.
Your filer cannot automatically swap tapes in a library, just a stacker. To get full advantage of libraries, you need an NDMP solution. As data grows, you may want a big library.
Stephen Manley Data Availability and Management Lifeguard