Bacula-users

Re: [Bacula-users] Large number of tapes?

2012-05-25 15:51:55
Subject: Re: [Bacula-users] Large number of tapes?
From: "John Stoffel" <john AT stoffel DOT org>
To: Erich Weiler <weiler AT soe.ucsc DOT edu>
Date: Fri, 25 May 2012 15:49:49 -0400
>>>>> "Erich" == Erich Weiler <weiler AT soe.ucsc DOT edu> writes:

Erich> Hi John,
Erich> Thanks for responding!  Reply below:
Erich> I'm looking for a little advice on a setup I have here.  I have
Erich> 300TB of non-changing data that I need to archive.  I have a
Erich> Dell ML6000 tape library that holds like 41 LTO-5 tapes
Erich> (connected to a CentOS 6 Server), and I have a pile of hundreds
Erich> of tapes to do this job with.
>> 
>> Quick question, how long do you plan on keeping this data?  And how
>> often do you plan on restoring it?  If this is for an archive, which
>> you expect to be usable for years and years, then I'd suggest that you
>> 
>> a) make two copies of each set of data, bacula can do this.
>> 
>> b) make sure you verify each tape that's written by reading it back,
>> bacual can do this too

Erich> Yep, we actually have two backup servers with two tape
Erich> libraries to make two copies in parallel to reduce backup time.
Erich> I didn't know it could read the tape back automatically after
Erich> writing each one for verification; which directive in the
Erich> config does that?

It's in the bacula manual, and I think it's called 'verify' or
something like that.  Please note, it *will* slow things down, alot,
since it now needs to re-read the tape and the filesystem chunk and
compare them.  

So having multiple libraries will only get you back upto the
performance of just one library without verification.  

Erich> The data will be archived conceivably for 15+ years.  Although
Erich> by that point I suspect we'll refresh our whole archive plan
Erich> again because of LTO-5 shelf life limitations.  ;)

I thought LTO-5 had a decent shelf life rating, but just making sure
you have reliable LTO-5 tape drives in 15 years might be the trick.
Anyone still got DAT and/or 8mm drives that can read their old
backups?  *grin*

Erich> This archive strategy is for DR only - we don't plan on doing
Erich> restores at all for daily stuff.  If we are restoring for any
Erich> reason, something went horribly wrong...

Yup.  The key to tape longevity is nice stable temps and nice stable
humidity levels.  I'm sure any on the major offsite media vendors can
happily provide this, at a cost.  

John

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