ADSM-L

Re: Comparison of Backup Products

2001-03-29 00:48:10
Subject: Re: Comparison of Backup Products
From: Mike Glassman - Admin <admin AT IAA.GOV DOT IL>
Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2001 07:47:40 +0200
Mark,

I would say not actually.

The fact that the problems centralized around the TSA modules in many cases,
was based on the fact that TSM/ADSM versions changed, not the TSA modules.
In every case, Netware was the one to bring out a new TSA module (including
some that weren't in SP's) in order to fix TSM/ADSM created problems. I
personaly had this issue with 2 seperate client upgrades from IBM, upgrades
which happened in a "same environment" Netware environment. Meaning that
there were absolutely no changes to the Netware systems, but there were
changes to the clients.

As well, TSM over Netware is one of the few still existing backup programs
which utilizes a non-GUI client on Netware servers (and please don't someone
come up and tell me that the web interface is GUI). And does not support
multi languages on Netware systems (lets see you try backup Hebrew, Arabic,
French off of a Netware file system and then restore it - if you can even
work out which file is which...).

I use TSM and Veritas here, and I have had 20 times the amount of problems
with TSM/ADSM then with Veritas. In fact, I have never had a problem with
Veritas that I have not solved in less then 24 hours.

And yes, I have supposedly excellent support for TSM/ADSM directly from both
IBM here in Israel, and a gold retailer who is here once a week at least.

TSM is a wonderfull product, and I am hoping that once all the quirks are
ironed out, it will actually perform to standard, but after having had so
many problems with it in the past, I think it's fair to say that TSM/ADSM is
like everyone else in this market. If you have the right support, your ok
(eventually), if you don't, your in bad waters.

The fact of the matter is that I go TSM because it will (or is supposed) to
give me what I want, a fast easy to use, centralized backup point for all my
servers, no matter what the OS (almost), which it does. But I sure as hell
don't bow down to it and kiss whomever made it.

Mike


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Remeta, Mark [SMTP:MRemeta AT SELIGMANDATA DOT COM]
> Sent: ã îøõ 28 2001 17:57
> To:   ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
> Subject:      Re: Comparison of Backup Products
> 
> It's been my experience that most of the problems Tivoli products have
> running on NetWare are actually Novell problems.
> Just my .02.
> 
> Mark
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tim Melly [mailto:tim.melly.b AT BAYER DOT COM]
> Sent: Wednesday, March 28, 2001 10:47 AM
> To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
> Subject: Re: Comparison of Backup Products
> 
> 
> David,
> 
> Thanks for the insight.
> 
> I too believe that *SM is the best "enterprise class" backup product
> currently
> available. The biggest issue we're having is with the Novell client, the
> 3.7
> version memory leak caused the Novell servers to crash, did not restore
> with
> the
> proper rights,
> the 4.1 version scheduler doesn't work. Unfortunately, Novell is where we
> do
> most of our restores so the problem is magnified.
> 
> My management has requested information on the advantages/disadvantages of
> the
> available backup solutions and I appreciate the non-sales centric
> feedback.
> 
> Regards, Tim
> 
> 
> 
> 
>                     "David M.
>                     Hendrix"             To:     ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
>                     <dmhendri@FED        cc:
>                     EX.COM>              Subject:     Re: Comparison of
> Backup Products
>                     Sent by:
>                     "ADSM: Dist
>                     Stor Manager"
>                     <ADSM-L AT VM DOT MA
>                     RIST.EDU>
> 
> 
>                     03/28/2001
>                     10:19 AM
>                     Please
>                     respond to
>                     "ADSM: Dist
>                     Stor Manager"
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Tim,
> 
> We've been through a few iterations of evaluations of these products.  We
> recently added Netbackup along with TSM as our supported software
> platforms.  We run on HP, Sun, Win2K and IBM platforms, use EMC and HDS
> disk arrays, EMC switches (okay - McData) and use 3590B/E, 9480 and LTO
> devices (and hopefully a Gator 64K soon).
> 
> Here is my take: they are both good products and we have a guidline design
> document for deployment and implementation for each product paired with
> whatever software.  However, we have discovered that from an enterprise
> class deployment, TSM is clearly the winner.  Implementing failover
> servers, messaging (integration into our ops VPO screens), and support are
> the key issues we have run up against.  We have also implemented the
> Veritas HSM product for our imaging process.  We were very disappointed
> that the product is not well integrated with Netbackup (it uses media
> manager but things like the vault product and failover do not work with
> the
> HSM product - TSM HSM would have been a much better choice but I was
> overridden).
> 
> Veritas is a solid product and we are having teething pains.  The cure
> always seems to be "Veritas Consulting Services".  These aren't cheap.
> There are third party companies that can help you as well and can
> sometimes
> provide more functionality than what Veritas would implement (I know one
> company that does Vault - their own - plus production SOP work ups).
> 
> Quality of code is probably not an issue you'd like to switch to Veritas
> on.  We have 21 TSM servers in production and all of our clients are tier
> 2
> or 3 servers.  Considering the amount of data we push each day it's pretty
> reliable.  Our tape drives have 50 times the # of problems as any code we
> run.  And so, the grass is not greener on the Veritas side - it's the same
> shade of brown.
> 
> David Hendrix
> dmhendri AT fedex DOT com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Tim Melly <tim.melly.b AT BAYER DOT COM>@VM.MARIST.EDU> on 03/28/2001 
> 07:13:45 AM
> 
> Please respond to "ADSM: Dist Stor Manager" <ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU>
> 
> Sent by:  "ADSM: Dist Stor Manager" <ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU>
> 
> 
> To:   ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
> cc:
> 
> Subject:  Comparison of Backup Products
> 
> 
> To All,
> 
> Due to the poor quality *SM code Tivoli has been releasing, and the
> resultant
> fallout at my site, I've been asked to investigate other backups
> solutions.
> I'm
> familiar with Veritas NetBackup but have not worked with any other backup
> products. Does anyone have any experiences / information on non-*SM
> products
> that they can share.
> 
> Thx, Tim Melly
>           Bayer Corp.
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