Lewis:
Please see below.
David
-----Original Message----- From: Sherbak, Tim Sent: Wednesday, July 14, 1999 8:10 AM To: Yu, David Subject: FW: Backup alternatives (again)
Hi David, I don't know as you monitor this dl- so thought I would pass it along. Tim
-----Original Message----- From: Lewis [mailto:lsa@netline.net.uk] Sent: Wednesday, July 14, 1999 7:40 AM To: toasters@mathworks.com Subject: Backup alternatives (again)
Hi everyone,
This is a first time posting from someone new to NatApps, so please bare with me. I hve been subscribed to the list for a while and read the archive to get up to speed on passed discussions.
I would appreciate it if list members could make suggestions about what alternative backup solutions are available and what kind of (un)recommendations this group puts on these alternatives.
This is a follow on from from previous discussions regarding the use of Budtool. I have taken over responsability for the backups as Shiona Mceill (former list contributer is on maternity leave).
Due to our lack of success with the implementation of Budtool and their recent demise from the UK market, we have decided not to pursue this solution.
We have looked at Netbackup from Veritas. Any comments?
Veritas introduced NDMP support for NetApp last year with 3.1.1 of NetBackup. NetBackup 3.2 is out now and adds support for NT, HP-UX, and AIX in addition to the Solaris support introduced with 3.1.1. Backups are to tape drives attached to the NetApp filer, and with 3.2, support for backup from Filer 1 to Filer 2's tape drive was implemented. Certification is done by Veritas, so support for some functionality may be staged.
We are currently looking at Quick Restore from Workstation Solutions. Any comments?
Workstation Solutions has been a very aggressive vendor and delivered a backup solution for NetApp very quickly. Backup to local tape drives, filer to filer backup (described above), and backup of Unix and NT server data to a filer's tape drive are all supported. Support is for DataONTAP 5.2 currently. A lot of different operating systems platforms are supported. For more details, please see:
As for platforms and configuration: We have 3+ F720 on 2 sites (ONTAP 5.1.2R3). 3 suns running SunOS 5.7, ATL L500 Library (DTL 7000 drive) and potentially in the future a large number of linux boxes.
NDMP has up until now been the preferred option as it seems to be the way forward with the NetApps. However, all that I have seen so far indicates that NDMP support in existing backup tools is a bit of a bolt inclusion that does not sit well with existing products or product architecture.
Most of the NDMP solutions for NetApp utilize the dump/restore functionality in DataONTAP and the SCSI passthrough facility in NDMP for robotics control. While it's true that this fits in better with certain backup software architectures than others, remember that NDMP itself will still evolve. Over time, the standard will change and be extended to provide more flexibility and better support for various architectures.
In order to configure the multiplatform network, dubious (built in) workarounds have to be made to get the system to work. These vary from additional links being wired into the library (locally attached to a NetApp), so that the unix data can be backed-up, to dummy library configuration for not local (library) attachments to NetApps.
All in all, any comments? Hopefully you will be able to tell me that I don't have a clue what I am on about and that it is all straightforward. Somehow I doubt this to be entirely the case, seeing the hoops we jumps through with budtool.
here's hoping, Lewis