[SunRescue] Re: Re: Spectra Logic Bullfrog

[Robert Novak]

On 1 May 2001, Gregory Leblanc wrote:

> > AIT media is a bit expensive (I use 230m AIT2 at work, $80/tape for
> > 50/125GB capacity) but it's easy to find. shopper.cnet.com shows pricing
> > as low as $50 for 25/50GB, $66 for 35/70GB. See
> 
> Are the 230m AIT-22 tapes the same as the AIT-1 tapes?  I've got
> "SDX1-35C" as the number on my 230m/35GB tapes.

I think they're different. Mine are SDX2-50C if I recall correctly.
*checks* Yep. SDX2-50C.  I suspect your SDX1 tapes will work at the lower
density, but having only touched one AIT-1 tape in my life (got a $10
external 8505XL with it jammed in the drive) I can't say that with
authority.

> Hmm, I'm running an SDX-300C, and I get about 46GB onto one of the above
> 35GB tapes.  This is a backup of quite a few NT server's OS drives, 2 MS
> Exchange databases, a few GB of compressed GHOST disk images, and the
> final dozen GB taken up by user documents, mostly Word and PowerPoint.
> I'm not sure how that compares to what typically get's backed up on your
> machines, but a lot of the data I backup isn't very compressible.  

The ghost images will kill your rate; mine is mostly uncompressed source
code and object files so I'm lucky. I used to get 50GB onto a Mammoth tape
(20GB native) because of all the source code and sparse object files.

> > from www.legato.com or www.veritas.com or thereabouts. I'll probably do
> > this with the 8mm library I have coming in soon.
> 
> Do you folks just discover these on ebay, or what?  

I got the 8mm library from a rescue-list member. The 4mm changer
(SureStore 12000e 6-slot dds2) came from a local friend who was pitching
it. Both came without magazines, and the magazines cost about what the
changers did (if not more) :-) Watch ebay, sure, but watch rescue and
sales @sunhelp and you may find even better deals. 

> I managed to borrow
> a 2GB DDS2 drive from work, and while it holds 2GB, but it takes ane
> entire night to fill the tape using GNU tar, with the drive hooked to a
> 3940UW.  I've got about that much stuff just in my user directory, so
> I'm browsing around for something faster, bigger, better...  

DDS2 will get you 300-500KB/sec no matter what scsi card you're on, pretty
much. I was dumping a 2x18GB Ultra 1 to 4mm 90m tapes and it ran onto the
8th tape nearly a day later. If you use compression, you get twice as much
(maybe). I think the later 8mm "normal" drives (8505/870x) will do 1MB/2MB
per sec native/compressed. 

DDS3 claims 7.2GB/hr which should be about 2MB/sec, not sure if that's
compressed or native. Media size is 12GB native, drives are about
$600-800, media is around $10.

DDS4 is apparently 3MB/sec, 20GB native, drives around $1000, media around
$20.

I've heard several people say DDS4 is the price peach these days if you're
buying new and don't mind 4mm. I'm pondering swapping out the drive in the
8mm changer to AIT if I can find a cheap enough drive, since I'm probably
up to 100GB to back up in systems at home. Then I need to get amanda
working with the ADIC changer. Whee.

--Rob

Robert Novak, Indyramp Consulting * rnovak at indyramp.com * indyramp.com/~rnovak
        "And it's been a long December and there's reason to believe
           Maybe this year will be better than the last...." -- counting crows