>We just had a disaster recovery drill recently and the issue of slow
>restores/retrieves was brought up.  It seems that there are so many tape
>mounts because the offsite copy storage pools aren't collocated since we
>send these tapes offsite every morning at 8AM.  To collocate would be a
>waste of tape and also cause more administrative work, such as reclamation.
>It has been suggested that we do archives of these filespaces and keep them
>for a limited number of days.  Is there a more efficient way of
>consolidating data onto a small group of tape for offsite or am I out of
>luck here.  It just seems like there should be a more efficient way of
>doing this without having to collocate and waste so many tapes.  Thanks in
>advance for any suggestions you may have!

You may want to get away from tapes for offsite storage of data, if you can
find a suitable vendor who provides electronic vaulting that is compatible
with your originating and DR sites.

Archive is a poor recommendation for the purpose, both due to its added
overhead (Descriptions, etc.) and in that it results in a primary storage
pool store rather than the offsite you seek.  Better is to do a periodic
Selective backup (full file system backup), which will implicitly write
the full collection of data to your offsite copy storage pool when the
Backup Stgpool is done.  You also have the option of Backup Sets, depending
upon objectives.  The product offers numerous alternative: it's a matter of
selecting the right one for your needs.

Overall, though, this is a classic data center failing, in apparently not
clearly defining DR objectives in advance, and deeming happenstance
realities inadequate when the first experiment occurs.  Incite your
management to meet and mull over exactly what they want for DR, then
work toward an affordable plan.

  Richard Sims, BU