crowston@athena.mit.edu (Kevin Crowston) (09/27/90)
A while back I asked for recommendations for backup devices for the
DecStation 3100 that could handle about a gigabyte per tape (or
whatever). Here are the replies I got, unedited:
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Date: Thu, 6 Sep 90 13:58:22 CDT
From: jah@MARGO.OTS.UTEXAS.EDU (Jeff Hayward)
We just took delivery of 4 - 1GB capacity disks, and two 4mm DAT drives.
I considered the 8mm stuff, which does have higher density and xfer
rates (for now), but settled for the less expensive and mechanically
simpler DAT drives. The DAT tapes should also survive more passes
over the heads, I'm told (on the order of 1000s). Also a consideration
was that the 4mm DDS standard had some chance of becoming an
interchange standard, while 8mm is still de-facto.
The drives we bought are the WangDAT 1300. Nice package, 1/2 height
5.25". About $1500.
Jeff Hayward
The University of Texas System +1 512 471 2444
Office of Telecommunication Services jeff@nic.the.net
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Date: Thu, 6 Sep 90 11:36:10 -0400
From: wojcik@CRL.DEC.COM
We're using Exabyte tape drives here. They are reliable and store up to 5GB
depending on model and length of tape. Exabyte EXB8200s store, for instance,
2.3GB on a 120 min. tape and the EXB8500 is supposed to store 5GB on a 120 min.
tape. One thing I've found: an Exabyte is an Exabyte is an Exabyte. Many
vendors offer the SAME DRIVE in different boxes at different prices. I've not
seen the EXB8500 yet though the last time I checked, Exabyte was supposed to
release it this summer.
/Ted
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+-+------------------------------------------------------------------------+-+
Date: Wed, 12 Sep 90 11:32:50 est
From: root@iceman.oz.au (0000-Admin)
We use an EXAbyte EXB-8200 8MM Cartridge Tape Subsystem.
EXABYTE Corp., 1745 38th Street, Boulder, Colorado 80301
Of course we bought it locally, but thought you might need that guff.
We have a 2100,3100,5000 offering a general user service.
The 3100 has 1 RZ23,2*RZ56, the 5000 1*RZ56,1*RZ57, the 2100 is a
diskless client. The user filesystems are NFS mounted across all
systems. A df on the 3100 follows:
15 marlin: % df
Filesystem Total kbytes kbytes %
node kbytes used free used Mounted on
/dev/rz1a 15551 10457 3539 75% /
/dev/rz3g 49935 12698 32244 28% /tmp
/dev/rz2g 263423 203035 34046 86% /usr
/dev/rz2e 62527 27494 28781 49% /var
/dev/rz2f 217263 119786 75751 61% /dlenv0
/dev/rz3a 46063 25494 15963 61% /dlclient0
groper.jcu.edu.au:/usr/man 271847 148880 95783 61% /usr/man
groper.jcu.edu.au:/user2 543310 420990 67989 86% /user2
groper.jcu.edu.au:/users 322927 170927 119708 59% /users
wanda.jcu.edu.au:/usr/scs 142919 69210 59418 54% /usr/scs
jculib:/usr 512634 353997 107374 77% /jcuusr
jculib:/jcuv 543710 449550 39789 92% /jcudyn
curacoa:/usr/users/cameron 227079 195452 8920 96% /user2/cpcg/curacoa
I back this up daily using cron and the following script:
#!/bin/csh
cd /
tar cvf /dev/rmt1h . >& /tmp/backup/tarbackup.log
echo 'tarbackup finished ' `date` >> /tmp/backup/tarbackup.log
The EXAbyte is rated to 2.3GB and takes approx 5 hrs to do this
on a lightly loaded system. I have had no problems restoring thus far.
Regards, Kent Adams Internet:cckba@marlin.jcu.edu.au
Phone:+61 77 814255 Snail: Computer Centre
Fax:+61 77 796371 James Cook University
Townsville..4811
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Date: Wed, 26 Sep 90 14:44:57 CDT
From: jiml@SLH.WISC.EDU (James E. Leinweber)
Various people are using exabyte 8mm drives here at the UW Madison to
good effect. The drive reliability is not outstanding, the transfer
rates low, and the tape quality erratic, but we have on the whole
quite successful with them. (I.e., we restore files often and it
works.) Be sure to have maintenance contract on the drive, clean it
on a suitable schedule, and buy one with an LCD display panel.
Jim Leinweber 1-608-262-0736 State Lab. of Hygiene/U. of Wisconsin - Madison
jiml@sente.slh.wisc.edu uunet!uwvax!uwslh!jiml fax:(608)262-3257
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We still haven't quite decided what to do, so I can't offer any
advice of my own (yet). Thanks to all who replied.
Kevin Crowston
MIT Sloan School of Management