I took a serious look at this product about a year ago ( v 2.1.4a)..
Compared to Veritas:
Positives for syncsort
- price
- standard features which are add-ons with veritas (ndmp, san drive
sharing)
- very easy to install and get working
- tech support over the phone was excellent
- offsite tapes can be produced by 'twinning' the backup to two drives
at backup
time instead of duplicating later
- catalog backup mechanisms can natively support spanning tapes.
Negatives against syncsort
- I felt there was a fundamental model breakdown in Syncsort's
implementation...
It's multiplexing model is job centric. A job is a list of nodes/file
systems
which are to be backed up. Streams within a job can be multiplexed
concurrently
to a tape. Streams can be created 1/client or 1/client file system
(with upper
bounds). Multiple jobs will not stream to the same tape drive. Hence,
maximum
performance will only be achieved by backing up multiple clients in
large jobs.
However there are design issues that will force having many jobs -
Exclusion
Filters, pre/post scripts, etc are all specified only at the job level.
- The version I reviewed could not rebuild the catalog information from
backup tapes.
If you lost/broke your catalog, you restore it from the catalog backups
or you're
out of luck
- limited command line/scripting/customization ability when compared to
NBU
- The product starts a 'browser' which traverses a file system
gathering meta
data information before the backup starts writing to tape. On a large
(120G)
source code file system, this took 3-4 hours. An option is available
to
begin writing to tape immediately and do the meta data gathering
concurrently.
However, when we tried this, the product spawned multiple browsers
traversing
the file system, resulting in a severe performance problem.
- File exclusion filters use a regex type syntax. This introduces
platform
dependencies (eg '/' vs '\' in path names) which means that file
exclusion
filters must be specified differently for each platform type. File
exclusion
filters are specified at the job level (not for client nodes in the
job).
- Tape management is job centric. The product stacks data on any
available
'appendable' tape without regard to the retention period.
- When running a job that will create an 'offsite' tape, the tape is
marked
'offsite' at the end of the job. Once marked offsite, the product will
not use
that tape again, even to stack other offsite data on it.
I would encourage all to take a second look at this product, as it would not
surprise me
if SyncSort has resolved many of my issues since then.
As always, these views are my own, and do not necessarily reflect those of my
employer.
Terry Green
Sr System Admin
Mitra Imaging
Waterloo Ontario Canada
tgreen AT mitra DOT com
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Marelas, Peter [mailto:MarelP AT AUSTRALIA.Stortek DOT com]
> Sent: Sunday, May 19, 2002 8:08 PM
> To: 'Lee Anne Pedersen'; veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
> Subject: RE: [Veritas-bu] alternative products
>
>
> Syncsort backup express is an alternative.
>
> www.syncsort.com
>
> Good competition keeps them honest.
>
> Regards
> Peter Marelas
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Lee Anne Pedersen [mailto:LeeAnne.Pedersen AT gov.ab DOT ca]
> Sent: Saturday, 18 May 2002 3:13 AM
> To: veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
> Subject: [Veritas-bu] alternative products
>
>
> Due to the ongoing headaches and poor customer service
> experienced with
> Veritas and NetBackup, administration is seriously
> considering moving to a
> different product. One being considered is Bakbone Software's
> NetVault.
> Does anyone here have any positive or negative experience
> with it that they
> could share with me?
>
> Thanks,
> Lee Anne
>
>
> Lee Anne Pedersen
> LAN/Server Analyst
>
> Alberta Corporate Service Centre (ACSC)
> DCS Delivery Team E
> Ph: 780-427-2504
> LeeAnne.Pedersen AT gov.ab DOT ca
>
> This communication is intended for the use of the recipient
> to which it is
> addressed, and may contain confidential, personal and or privileged
> information. Please contact us immediately if you are not the intended
> recipient of this communication, and do not copy, distribute,
> or take action
> relying on it. Any communication received in error, or
> subsequent reply,
> should be deleted or destroyed.
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
> http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu
> _______________________________________________
> Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
> http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu
>
|