--On Friday, September 20, 2002 21:19:43 -0400 Gene Heskett <gene_heskett AT 
iolinc DOT net> wrote:
> 
> I'd think that rather than larger tapes, faster drives would be 
> higher on the list, if for no other reason than to get the darned 
> job done before the offices open in the morning.  Here, it 
> occasionally is still running when the 4am stuff comes due, but 
> this DDS2 I use is a slower drive, less than 400kb/second.  
> Obviously a busier machine would need a faster drive.  The upside 
> of the DDS2 is the price of the tapes, they are almost a non-issue 
> at less than 50 bucks a ten pack on ebay.

Another option to a faster tape drive is more holding disk space.
If your holding disk is as large as your backups (and your reserve
is set appropriately) you can shorten your backup window to just
the time your dumpers take, and even if it takes 10 or 15 hours
to write it to tape it won't impact the clients.  Even if you
don't have enough disk for the entire backup, whatever you can
add to it will help (assuming your tape drive is the limiting
factor.

Frank


--
Frank Smith                                                fsmith AT hoovers 
DOT com
Systems Administrator                                     Voice: 512-374-4673
Hoover's Online                                             Fax: 512-374-4501