As a data protection consultant, I have been asked to do some crazy
things...
One of them for the military was restore backup data from 10 years ago,
that had data for a base closure and had congressional investigation
on-going. This was just after y2k right? Big 1/2" tape.
In my case, I was very lucky that the retired Air Force Communications
Chief in charge of I.T. kept two of every piece of equipment that would
be needed to restore any data. The data restored was from a Banyan Vines
Server, using True LEGATO tape drives and software.
Very lucky... today my recommendation might start with a question... Is
this a realistic drop dead requirement? If yes, while calculating your
data costs, factor in the cost of a data migration service from old
technology to new technology every 3 years. Move the data from old media
to new media you are done. We are having a lot more media (LTO3 tape)
failure than even I expected.
I would recommend short-term backup go to DataDomain or some similar
technology anything over 1 year retention should go to the latest most
trust worthy media. Unfortunately the quad-density blue ray discs are
not fast enough to use as mainstay storage.. Although if you are going
to keep something for 30 years, that would be my media of choice. /shrug
Food for thought, hopefully no one gets food poisoning. /grin
Semper fidelis, /ALE
-----Original Message-----
From: EMC NetWorker discussion [mailto:NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU] On
Behalf Of Macina, Conrad
Sent: Saturday, February 19, 2011 8:25 AM
To: NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU
Subject: Re: [Networker] long term retention of data and old hardware
Both of you are 100% correct. Dave's statement was, "Our regulatory
requirements are to keep some of our *DATA* upwards of 30 years
[emphasis mine]," the key word is "data," not "tapes." There's no
requirement to retain tapes for long periods of time. You only need to
retain data. While tape is a very good medium for backups, it is highly
subject to temperature and humidity fluctuations and as Terry points out
tends to break down over time. One industry analyst estimates that 18%
of backup tapes can't be read after two years.
Think back just fifteen or so years ago (half of Dave's regulatory
requirement), when the state of the art in tape was DDS and QIC and LTO
stood for "Lunar Transfer Orbit." What if you had to restore one of
those tapes today? Would you have the hardware? Would it still be
functional? And even if the tapes and drives were good, would you have
software capable of reading them? NetWorker was a very small player a
decade and a half ago. And why do you expect fifteen years from now to
be much more like today than today is like fifteen years ago?
The major point here is that there's a difference between backups and
archives, and companies ignore that difference at their peril.
I'm not recommending any specific archiving product. There are many, and
you have to decide for yourself which one best fits your specific needs
and budget. But using your backup infrastructure for archiving is
guaranteed to cause problems down the road.
Just my two cents.
Conrad Macina
Pfizer, Inc.
-----Original Message-----
From: terry.lemons AT EMC DOT COM [mailto:terry.lemons AT EMC DOT COM]
Sent: Friday, February 18, 2011 3:20 PM
Subject: Re: long term retention of data and old hardware
Hi Dave
Your concerns are spot-on. Another facet to help you lose sleep is that
the magnetic signal on those tapes degrades every day and, at some
point, the tape drives will no longer be able to read those tapes. How
long it takes for that to happen is influenced by many factors,
including the quality of the media, the quality of the tape drive
design, the conditions in which the tapes are stored, etc.
So, in addition to needing to move your data off of media before the
technology isn't supported, you also need to move it before the tapes
become unreadable.
tl
> -----Original Message-----
> From: EMC NetWorker discussion [mailto:NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU]
> On Behalf Of Browning, David
> Sent: Friday, February 18, 2011 2:43 PM
> To: NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU
> Subject: [Networker] long term retention of data and old hardware
>
> Just out of curiosity, what is everyone doing in terms of long term
> retention of data, and still being able to read old tapes?
>
>
>
> For example, we have thousands of old LTO-2 and LTO-3 tapes. We are
> looking to upgrade to LTO-5, but then that would mean we can't read
our
> old LTO-2 tapes, unless we keep at least 1, or more, LTO-3 drives.
> Right now, that really isn't a problem.
>
>
>
> What happens 5, or 10, years from now, when LTO-3 drives are no longer
> available for service?
>
>
>
> Our regulatory requirements are to keep some of our data upwards of 30
> years, so this question is not going away any time soon.
>
>
>
> - Dave.
>
>
>
> David M. Browning Jr.
>
> IT Project Coordinator Enterprise Backups and Help Desk
>
>
>
>
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