Here's my justification for preferring a UNIX NetBackup server:

1. The UNIX system will be able to pull a lot more power (throughput) and 
drive more tape drives
2. A lot of the free tools you see on this list are written in bourne 
shell, or are in perl
    but not written for NT.
3. It's harder to write scripts for NT even if you know what you're doing.
    The '\' thing really gets in the way. ;)
4. Easier to send mail via the command line. (Yes, I know about BLAT.)
5. Cron is MUCH better than NT's AT.

However:

1. The NT Admin GUI is much better than the Java or X GUI.
    There is real functionality that isn't in either of the other GUIs.
    However, you can install that GUI on  your NT box that's controlling 
your Unix master.
2. The NT version of NetBackup COSTS less.
3. The NT BOX will cost less
4. Tru64 != UNIX
    Veritas ports to and certifies them last.  You will always behind the 
power curve.
    If your choice is Tru64 for a master, or W2k as a master, I'd go Win2k.
    (And buy Aeleen Frisch's book "Win2k Command line.")

This comes up a lot.  We should FAQ it.  Let's see what others have to say.

At 12:40 PM 8/23/2001 -0400, Daniel Monjar wrote:
>not meaning to start a war here... and being a Unix bigot I might
>already know the answer but, does Datacenter 3.4 on Unix offer
>significant advantages over 3.4 on NT?
>
>I am close to rolling out 3.4 in my production environment.  When the
>project was initiated our direction was Unix and NT for the production
>servers.  The master server is Compaq Tru64 Unix 5.1 and it was to be
>backing up NT and Unix file systems as well as SQL Server, Oracle, and
>Exchange databases.  My company was acquired on 7/1/01 and overnight
>Unix and Oracle were gone as far as the production environment.
>
>I can keep the Unix master server but it would only make sense to do
>so if the Unix system were significantly better than the NT.
>
>Any thoughts?
>
>--
>Daniel Monjar (mailto:dmonjar AT orgtek DOT com)
>_______________________________________________
>Veritas-bu maillist  -  Veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
>http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu

---
W. Curtis Preston
Principal Consultant for Storage Designs,   your storage experts
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