We just did an evaluation of Storage Migrator, and I've been looking
also at other archiving solutions, including NetBackup's archiving
functionality.
> 1. What are people experiencing for lifetimes on their DLT7000 media? If I
> know what to expect, I can either not guarantee things longer than that, or I
> can manually "refresh" my dates by duplicating and erasing previous copies.
>
I tried to find the answer to this exact question, with no solid answer.
I was told by our sales rep that 30 years is the approximate lifespan of
DLT media. I wouldn't heavily rely on this.
> 2. Am I missing something? Does anyone know of a better package for doing
> archiving?
No, you're probably not missing anything as I've yet to find a good true
archiving package. Keep in mind that Storage Migrator is an HSM
(hierarchal storage manager), NOT an archiving solution. Data can still
be modified, and if you are considering using it for long-term storage
of important data, keep in mind that its an extra layer of complexity.
On top of it all, its newer pricing scheme makes it more expensive than
disk, unless you have a *lot* of data. NetBackup has an archiving
functionality, but it may not fit your needs well. Its limits of
retention periods, lacking the ability to selectively destroy data (for
govt. documents, this is very important), and weak meta data search
capability made it a no-go; it works great for backup though!
> I need to have automated, user-interactive, and scheduled
> archiving of files from both NT and Unix. I need to collect metadata about the
> files (data from inside the file: Experiment number, compound, etc.) I want to
> store the data in an Oracle database so that I can do metadata searches for
> files, and then somehow interact with my media management system to retrieve
> the files. I need to be able to specify retention levels for files, etc.
>
Finding a true archive solution has been on my backburner for a while,
but a solution I found that *may* be close to what you are looking for
is this: http://www.flexstornet.com/html/archive.html. I haven't tested
this or anything, so I don't endorse it, but it somewhat matches your
requirements.
>
> Anyone have any recommendations?
Something I think is novel & interesting is perhaps to archive data to
DVD-RAMs or even CD-Rs (try http://www.luminex.com/. They only hold
about 5 Gig each, but their shelf life is *way* longer than tape. The
problem is to find a solution to catalog the data to a database reliably
and also to schwerp the data out to the media you want.
Hope this helps.
> --
> Andy Steingruebl | e-mail: steingra AT pprd.abbott DOT com
> Unix Systems Admin/Programmer | phone: (847) 935-4728
> Unix/Network Security | fax: (847) 935-0142
> Abbott Laboratories, PPDR&D | post: 100 Abbott Park Road, D472 - AP9A
> | Abbott Park, IL 60064-6115
>
--
Ryan C. Anderson | United Defense L.P.
Unix Administrator | 763.572.6684 (desk)
ryan_anderson AT udlp DOT com | 952.235.9936 (pager)
|
