I worked with Legato for over a month on evaluating AlphaStor and unless
you have literally thousands of tapes and manage a mainframe type
library then I would not recommend AlphaStor. You will still have to
purchase/license Autolibrary licenses, Networker Server licenses and
your storage node licenses. One of the AlphaStor licenses handles the
drive sharing. The account rep I worked with gave me an example of
clients that have say 15-25,000 tapes.
You can accomplish what you are looking for with your current Legato
products. Adding the Legato Management Console (for tape mgmt and
reporting), Dynamic Drive Sharing, Networker Dedicated Storage Node (LAN
Free)as opposed to "Storage Node" which is for direct attached devices
e.g. SCSI. I would add the SAN components and purchase the Backup to
Disk Option as well. Any Server on the SAN could use the Libraries that
are on the SAN and you could do "Hot Backups" to SAN and "Warm Backups"
to tape. You could even keep using SCSI for the backup from disk to
Tape.
If you wanted another product for the Reporting you could look into
software from Bocada Research.
Lastly AlphaStor like all Legato's products runs on everything. I don't
think Legato makes a product that does not run on Unix and its
derivatives.
The reason you are not getting a lot of information is that in order to
properly evaluate AlphaStor a site visit and meeting is required from
Legato. When a product costs over 30K I highly recommend it as well.
Dana
-----Original Message-----
From: Legato NetWorker discussion [mailto:NETWORKER AT LISTMAIL.TEMPLE DOT EDU]
On Behalf Of Herrmann, Dave
Sent: Tuesday, April 27, 2004 05:12 PM
To: NETWORKER AT LISTMAIL.TEMPLE DOT EDU
Subject: Re: [Networker] Opinions on AlphaStore: Anyone using it?
I'm interested in it for a couple reasons. One, we're getting to the
point
we need to add an additional Networker server or storage node to balance
the
load of our backups (We have the server and three storage nodes now).
Currently everything is SCSI connected into a single library with 6
LTO-1
drives, and we're looking at adding some SAN connected LTO-2 drives for
the
existing storage nodes. The current LTO-1 drives then would be all
connected
to the backup sever and additional storage node. All those systems,
coupled
with a half dozen tape pools for different retention periods and/or
specific
data is getting difficult to manage for our operators.
I like the sound of sharing the tape library and drives among all the
backup
servers/storage nodes. One of the things I'm wondering in this regard
is:
Does AlphaStore provide the drive sharing without having to invest in
Legato's dynamic drive sharing modules? Or does it rely on those to
function?
I've read about some reporting feature it contains. I've also been
considering Networker Operations and Management Console as possible
enhancements as well. But it sounds like there may be a lot of
redundancy
across these three products. Is anyone familiar with all of these and
this
might indeed be the case?
I'm curious about the number of messages for each tape operation that
you
mention below. Is there a lot?
I want some training. The information I'm finding out about the product
online seems to be minimal at best.
I've only seen AlphaStore offered for a Windows platform, although I
assume
the Networker servers can be on any platform. Is this a correct
assumption?
Does AlphaStore run on any other platforms? This is a concern because
I'm
gearing up to replace my Windows based Networker server with an AIX
based
Windows server, hopefully before we add the new LTO-2 drives I mentioned
above.
Dave Herrmann
-----Original Message-----
From: Wood, R A (Bob) [mailto:WoodR AT chevrontexaco DOT com]
Sent: Tuesday, April 27, 2004 3:17 AM
To: Legato NetWorker discussion; Herrmann, Dave
Subject: RE: [Networker] Opinions on AlphaStore: Anyone using it?
Yes, I'm using AlphaStor, have been for 3 or 4 years.
Overall the experience is not bad but there are some quirks. These
centre
around what happens when AlphaStor, Networker and reality have a
disagreement (once you've sorted the order that you put things straight
life
gets bearable)
Right now we have a bit of a problem trying to get AlphaStor to see a
new
Networker server (Solaris server and it doesn't create the device for
the
auto-changer that AlphaStor requires to configure the library - but
we're
working on that).
Once set up it is pretty straightforward to use (don't notice that it's
there half of the time). You soon get used to the number of messages
that
are created for each tape operation.
I'd suggest getting some training before it goes in (mmm... I must get
round
to that...)
If you have specific questions or concerns, post away, I'm sure there'll
be
someone on this list who has the answer. :)
Regards
Bob
-----Original Message-----
From: Legato NetWorker discussion [mailto:NETWORKER AT LISTMAIL.TEMPLE DOT EDU]
On Behalf Of Herrmann, Dave
Sent: 26 April 2004 17:21
To: NETWORKER AT LISTMAIL.TEMPLE DOT EDU
Subject: [Networker] Opinions on AlphaStore: Anyone using it?
I'm considering Legato's AlphaStore product to provide enhanced tape
management to my Networker backup system. Is there anyone in here using
it?
What are some of your opinions on it?
David D. Herrmann
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