I can't speak for Veritas/Legato/ArcServ but Backup Exec used to be Veritas
and I think is back to Seagate, I can answer for.  The con's would be bad
tape usuage, but that can be a pro when you send it off site for DR.  The
pro would be total restore without the hastle of versioning off anything.
We did fulls every weekend (except Month end which was a full for the
monthend instead of weekend).  Then Monday night to Thursday night we did
differentials (better use of tape, but more redundant (which also gave more
backups/versions)), Thursday nights was the master differential.  Come
restore time all you needed was Weekend full and 1 day tape (2 tapes) which
gave us quick restores (name of the game).  Con would be all tapes were
offsite, therefore all restores were 24 hour turnaround unless Big Boss
needed then I drove to Vault and restored within 1 hour.  We knew that each
client/server would take 25 tapes per year (8 dailies (Monday - Thursday) ,
5 weekends, 11 monthends, and 1 yearend) and add 1 tape per year (off site
permantly) but these tapes were reused continuously  (remaining 24).  So if
a client/server took more than 1 tape on differential, then multiply times
25.  I enjoyed the easability to restore but the headaches of admin seemed
worth the TSM conversion.  We have had TSM for nearly 2 years now and we
are gradually (slower than I like) becoming more tape efficient 385 private
and 339 scratch vs the 2500 tapes.  But I am learning that tapes are not
the only issue, during restore if 1 tape per server will make 6x faster
then the TSM nocollocate,  more tapes can be better.  The main thing is the
main thing RESTORE.



                    Gerald
                    Wichmann             To:     ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
                    <gwichman@ATTB       cc:
                    I.COM>               Subject:     Veritas/Legato/ArcServ
                    Sent by:
                    "ADSM: Dist
                    Stor Manager"
                    <ADSM-L AT VM DOT MAR
                    IST.EDU>


                    04/17/02 01:19
                    PM
                    Please respond
                    to "ADSM: Dist
                    Stor Manager"






Not specifically TSM question but more of a question to better
understand how to discuss pro's/cons to other competing products.

Since my background is all TSM, I'm curious on how the other competitors
handle media. Is my assumption correct that they waste a lot of tape
space? As far as I understand it, all these products do traditional
full/incremental type backups where each full and incremental "uses a
tape". Thus Server 1 would suck up 7 tapes in a week (1 full, 6
incrementals).

Is this true? Or can these products actually put 2 full's on a single
tape? Or multiple incrementals on a single tape?