Didn't take time to check the archives, but I believe the NAS w/SAN centralized tape backup has been addressed here before. The "certified" solution incorporates NetApp/Veritas/Vixel/Spectra Logic. Joe

Joe Luchtenberg Dataline, Inc. New number and email, please update: 757.858.0600 858.0606 fax joe.luchtenberg@data-line.com

-----Original Message----- From: Marion Hakanson [SMTP:hakanson@cse.ogi.edu] Sent: Wednesday, October 11, 2000 2:27 PM To: Scott Mikusko Cc: Cormier, Darleen; 'Jeffrey Krueger'; toasters@mathworks.com Subject: Re: Veritas NetBackup + NDMP == Doh!!

...

. . . This is where allowing NDMP to dump to a remote tape library is very important, because systems such as I support require more than 4 drives and having local tapes drives on filers is not really feasible.

-Scott

I think things are headed toward the use of SAN-connected tape drives and libraries for this type of setup. The backup software tells the SAN switch to connect up the appropriate number of drives to the backup client (NetApp), and then uses NDMP to initiate the backup on the client, using "direct attached" tape drives. When that backup is done, you "direct attach" the drives to the next client.

I think Veritas and NetApp claim to support something like this, but only with certain SAN switching equipment. If you've got SCSI drives (as opposed to FC), then you'll need a SCSI-to-FC converter while you're at it.

Heck, some libraries (ATL, for one) are becoming available with NDMP servers right in them, ethernet interface included. Dunno where you put the file history or tape indexes, but it's getting interesting.

Speaking of NAS & tape libraries, does anybody have any experience with the Grau Data "Infinistore Virtual Disk System" (www.graudata.com)? It's apparently a NAS box with a RAID cache in front of a tape library.

The brief article I saw in Server/Workstation Expert magazine mentioned that an "entry level" system starts at around $100k, so I didn't read beyond that (:-). We sure wish NetApp had something like this, since somewhere around 80% of our filer's capacity is tied up in files that haven't been accessed in a year or more.

Regards,

-- Marion Hakanson hakanson@cse.ogi.edu CSE Computing Facilities