On Thu, 14 Nov 2002, Stan Horwitz wrote:

> Subject: [Networker] Questions about Mirapoint NMDP backups vs file level
>
>
> We are considering replacing our central email system with a Mirapoint
> email server. Right now, our email server is a system that runs Tru64
> Unix. The technical representatives from Mirapoint told me that they
> recommend using Legato with directly attached NMDP tape drives to back up
> their server (it would be about 850GB in capacity). We use standard file
> level backups now with Legato 6.1.1 on a Tru64 Unix server. to back up
> our
> existing mail server with full backups done once a week (staggered across
> different volumes and tape pools) and incrementals done on the other six
> days of the week.
>
> I am finding the documentation on NMDP backups to be very sketchy. As I

Stan,

My NDMP experience is with NetApp, not Mirapoint.  But in a nutshell, NDMP
allows you to control devices and backups to directly attached drives from a
third host, ie, a Networker server.  The backup capability of the NetApp is
essentially traditional unix dump/restore with a couple of extra bells and
whistles.  Hence, it supports level 0-9 backups but no equivalent of
incrementals unless you devise a scheme with increasing levels for each
backup.

NetApp's dumps from 6.1.X are restorable on Solaris 8 (2/02) using Sun's
restore command.

In my experience Solaris is a better Networker platform than Linux.  No
experience with Tru64.

Talk to your Mirapoint sales person about capabilities.

I believe NetApp documentation is publicly available, so you can look at that
those documents.  Forget the Legato NDMP documentation, as it is sparse.
If Mirapoint documentation is not publicly available, ask for it from your
sales person so that you can make an informed decision.

Feel free to send me a private email if you want more details.  I've ragged on
the limitations of NDMP (neither a NetApp nor a Legato complaint!) in prior
postings if you search through the archives.

Shelley

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