[comp.sys.dec] Backup technology

ww0r+@andrew.cmu.edu (Walter Wong) (02/23/90)

We're currently looking into good backup solutions for our systems.
We have a pair of DECstations and a VAXstation 3100 and a
VAXstation 3200.  The DECstations are (naturally) running Ultrix but
the VAXstations are running VMS.  We are thinking of getting two
units, one for the VMS side, one for the Ultrix puppies.  Ideally, the
backup device could be interchanged between the two systems so that if
one unit went down, the other could take its place.

Our backup needs aren't that complex.  Weekly backups would be more
than enough and most of the data scanned would not need to be backed
up again. (We're the DEC Education Software Library here so most of
the backups would involve making sure we can restore savesets fast if
a disk goes bad but that also means we have around of gigabyte of data
to deal with.)

The only obvious things to rule out are (1) TK50s (too slow) and (2)
Mag tapes (not enough space to store the tapes) and (3) anything over
$15K (with educational discounts, et al). 

We'd be interested in hearing horror stories, recommendations, etc.
Messages including a way to buy or "test drive" the backup units would
be appreciated.  Please send mail to me and I'll summarize.

Please don't send me requests for summaries until after I posted that
the summary is available.  I might lose your request.

Thanks,

Walter

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Walter Wong                        internet:Walter.Wong@andrew.cmu.edu  
        
Student System Manager, et al.     bitnet:  r746ww0r@cmccvb 
DEC Education Software Library     uucp:try {harvard,psuvax}
Carnegie Mellon University    	     !andrew.cmu.edu!ww0r+     
Disclaimer: "My boss thinks I should go to class more often."