Curtis,

Could you comment on what you see is the problems with AFTD in large NW
environments?  You mentioned them in this item, but don't go into
detail.

Thanks.
Teresa

-----Original Message-----
From: EMC NetWorker discussion [mailto:NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU] On
Behalf Of Curtis Preston
Sent: Wednesday, August 22, 2007 7:36 PM
To: NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU
Subject: Re: [Networker] new to Virtual Tape Library - what are the
benefits?

I've read this whole thread now and wanted to comment on it with a
little more thought...

.
.
.
2. There's also the issue where you can't expire a tape until all its
backups expire.  This is no different than physical tape.  I think this
is pretty easy to deal with.  Either use really small virtual tapes or
mark your tapes as full with a script after each night's backups.  A 400
GB tape marked full in a VTL won't take up 400 GB, so that's OK.  That
way, each night's backups are on their own set of tapes, causing all of
them to be expired when those backups expire.  (You also need to
segregate by retention period if this is to work well -- just like with
real tape.)  You don't have this issue with an AFTD as it can expire
individual savesets, but I think that an AFTD comes with too many other
problems in large NW environments.

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