Hi Bruce,
I'm not clear how a hacker could destroy data in snapshots - remember that they are read-only, and that's why they have proved useful in cases of virus attack.
Anyone who has used tapes much will know that it's not that unusual to have problems retrieving the data, quite apart from the management of the tapes and backup software.
I think the issue between use of tapes or disk for backup revolves mainly around archival. Snapshots will give you maybe a few weeks of backups, and SnapMirror can replicate this for disaster recovery, but if you need to archive for either legal reasons, or because your data is volatile (high rate of change) or needs to be kept for a long time, the amount of disk required may be too large for your computer suite, and removable media is still necessary.
This issue is discussed further in a White Paper at http://www.netapp.com/tech_library/3066.html
Regards, Andrew
-----Original Message----- From: owner-dl-toasters@netapp.com [mailto:owner-dl-toasters@netapp.com]On Behalf Of Bruce Sterling Woodcock Sent: 13 April 2000 22:58 To: Fred Ab; toasters@mathworks.com; bet@rahul.net Subject: Re: Disk-to-disk backups? (was Re: Need new backup solution)
Not only that, but if a hacker breaks in and all your backups are online, they can just as easily destroy them too. Or they can become corrupted due to a failure. Tapes are much more stable (unless you pass a magnet over them) and you can store them, as you said, offsite.
Snapshots are great for near-term recovery, and mirrors are even good for single-point disasters, but you always want tapes available in the event of a catastrophe.
Bruce