dj@COGNET.UCLA.EDU (08/17/88)
We have a fairly new network of 40 Apollos running 9.7 (SR10 "Real Soon Now" :-). The topic of system backups has become an issue for us. According some rough figuring, we have a worst case of 5 Gb of user space to back up, and are presently using about 2 Gb. Obviously mag tapes aren't a nice way to go (20 tapes!?), so what is available? I have heard about Workstation Solutions' exaTape (SCSI 8mm video for $6950), but I am not familiar with anything else. We are open to any cost effective solution (video tape, optical disk, ...). Does anyone have any suggestions, recommendations, or words from the wise? thanks, dj ----------------------------------------------------------------------- David J Wells w213/825-6850 dj@cs.ucla.edu
dave@jplopto.uucp (Dave Hayes) (08/18/88)
MEGATAPE corporation (in Duarte, CA) sells a backup subsystem that
runs off of a Ciprico card. The thing costs about $9000, and the media
cost is...get this...$10 a cartridge and you can buy the media at a
Music Plus or Wherehouse. The media is the "super 8" form of video
cartridge, and each cartridge contains 2.3 gigabytes of storage.
I run a 15 (12 Nodes and 3 DSP90 servers) node network here at JPL,
have been using their older system ($12,500 for the system and
630MB per $125 cartridge) and have had no problems using it except
for the fact that RBAK/WBAK times out looking for a logical backup
file that is too far into the media. But our backups aren't accessed
that often, and I always run through the thing sequentially anyway.
Their phone number is (818)357-9921. Any more inquries, please E-mail
me at one of the address below.
------===<<<Dave Hayes>>>===------
dave%jplopto@jpl-mil.jpl.nasa.gov
{cit-vax,ames}!elroy!jplopto!dave klg@njsmu.UUCP (Kenneth Goodwin) (08/18/88)
In article <15278@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU>, dj@COGNET.UCLA.EDU writes: > > We have a fairly new network of 40 Apollos running 9.7 (SR10 "Real Soon > Now" :-). The topic of system backups has become an issue for us. > According some rough figuring, we have a worst case of 5 Gb of user space > to back up, and are presently using about 2 Gb. Obviously mag tapes > aren't a nice way to go (20 tapes!?), so what is available? > > > thanks, > dj > Try Megatape Corporation P.O. Box 317 Duarte Ca. 91010-0317 (818) 357-9921 We have had four of their MT750 tape drives here for a while and they are very reliable. Repairs are via CDC field service operations or return to factory. MT750 sell for around $12,000 each. Stores around 630 MB Formatted on a cartridge rated at 750MB unformatted. Good error recovery in drive, I/O caches, all the nice bells and whistles. Only problem with the MT500, MT750 are transfer rates are 250 KB sustained. Megatape also now has two new drives, a 1 GB per tape drive and a 8MM Exabyte type as well, so they have a good selection. Supports most available Popular tape interfaces as well. Ours are running on Pyramids. with the exception of the 8MM drive. all use a book size cartridge. The cartridge costs about $100.00 each, after you use it 100 times return it to factory for refurbishment, refurb costs under $50.00... They also have a one year warranty on the cartridge. Latest Models: MT 750 630 MB on a 750 MB cartridge Drive transfer rate 250 KB/sec. depending on system controller, interface rate to 4 MB/s (system to Megatape cache memory) 120 IPS GT-88 8 mm cartridge 2 GB capacity, 1 MB Cache Pertec Interface 150 IPS, 245 KB per second transfer rate MT 1500 Book cartridge as per MT750, 764 KB/sec transfer rate 1.2 GB formatted capacity 512 KB cache Pertec or SCSI interfaces Get the marketing hype for further details. Oh, of all the companies I have dealt with over the phone, they HAVE the BEST customer support. Whatever you need, you get it. They really stand behind their stuff. reliability: Most problems we have had were with bad or out of alignment switches in the load mechanism, quick fixes, one drive had a bad controller board that took a while to track down. (we use CDC service here, and they are still on a learning curve with the drive.... However Megatape was very helpful with tracking down the problem. Our CDC guys spend HOURS on the phone talking to them and they don't gripe once....) One of our drives came in from the factory via air freight and van delivery without the top foam padding in place (oops a factory goof) So this drive was bounced around quite a bit. Megatape offered to swap it, but as it looked okay, we installed it with the understanding that if it was broken, we would get a new one with no trouble. The drive has worked flawlessly from day one and that was over a year ago. (we got the some of the first MT750's off the line. I understand that AT & T and various Bell companies in the NJ area also have these drives. The cartridges can not be read by any other NON-MEGATAPE drives so that's a downside. But until 8 MM came along, no one that I know of made anything with the kind of density that these drives have had right along. Ken Goodwin NJ State Medical Underwriters, Inc.
bergstr@hi-csc.UUCP (Darryl Bergstrom) (08/19/88)
In article <15278@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU>, dj@COGNET.UCLA.EDU writes: > > We have a fairly new network of 40 Apollos running 9.7 (SR10 "Real Soon > Now" :-). The topic of system backups has become an issue for us. > According some rough figuring, we have a worst case of 5 Gb of user space > to back up, and are presently using about 2 Gb. Obviously mag tapes > aren't a nice way to go (20 tapes!?), so what is available? > > I have heard about Workstation Solutions' exaTape (SCSI 8mm video for > $6950), but I am not familiar with anything else. We are open to any > cost effective solution (video tape, optical disk, ...). Does anyone > have any suggestions, recommendations, or words from the wise? > > Well, we are in a similar situation, and about a year and a half ago, my predecessor bought a megatape mt-750 (750 meg) streaming tape drive. Let me say that as a student who had to do the backups, this drive was a godsend compared to our suns that used 60 meg cartridges. Megatape now has an 8mm tape drive (alas we don't have this one). As for the ExaTape, we have four of them for our Sun fileservers and the speed is incredible! They took a 12 hour backup and reduced it to 1.5 hours, and from MegaTapes flyers on their 8mm the backup rate is about 2.3Gig in 4 hours. I have 0 experience with optical disks, but aren't they write once/read many? that can get expensive. I would recommend the 8mm drives (tapes are cheap $9 around MN and the speed is great) > thanks, > dj your welcome Darryl Bergstrom Honeywell Corporate Systems Development Division, Golden Valley, MN UUCP: {uunet || rutgers!umn-cs}!hi-csc!bergstr ARPA: bergstr@hi-csc.honeywell.com -=OR=- darryl@ux.acss.umn.edu -- -Darryl Bergstrom -Honeywell Corporate Systems Development Division, Golden Valley, Mn -UUCP: {uunet || rutgers!umn-cs}!hi-csc!bergstr -ARPA: bergstr@hi-csc.honeywell.com -=OR=- darryl@ux.acss.umn.edu
cam@ptisea.UUCP (Cameron Elliott) (09/15/88)
I am attempting to write a utility program to map out bad sectors from the manufacturers media map, the only problem is that I don't know how to go from byte offset to sector number, any clues? -- Disclaimer: If employees dont represent an organization what does? Cameron Elliott Portable Cellular Communications Path: ...!uw-beaver!tikal!ptisea!cam
markb@denali (09/16/88)
In article <232@ptisea.UUCP>, cam@ptisea.UUCP (Cameron Elliott) writes: > > I am attempting to write a utility program to map out bad sectors from > the manufacturers media map, the only problem is that I don't know > how to go from byte offset to sector number, any clues? Divide the bye count by the UNfomatted byts/sector. markb