sherer@oucmail.cc.nd.edu (Michael Sherer) (08/29/90)
Our department is working up a network back-up proposal. We have settled on an Exabyte-based system and are waiting for the release of Retrospect Remote. However, I have learned that PCPC has been shipping a product called Netstream for about a year now which provides centralized backup of each workstation on the network across multiple zones. Could anyone with experience with this product comment on its reliability, strengths and weaknesses? Will it work with Exabyte juke boxes? Also the Exabytes are quite expensive in their Mac incarnation. How difficult is it to hang a Mac SCSI cable off a SUN Exabyte drive? Standard Disclaimer
mlwiese@eagle.mit.edu (Mike Wiese) (08/30/90)
In article <383@news.nd.edu> sherer@oucmail.cc.nd.edu (Michael Sherer) writes: > Our department is working up a network back-up proposal. We have settled > on an Exabyte-based system and are waiting for the release of Retrospect > Remote. However, I have learned that PCPC has been shipping a product > called Netstream for about a year now which provides centralized backup of > each workstation on the network across multiple zones. Could anyone with > experience with this product comment on its reliability, strengths and > weaknesses? Will it work with Exabyte juke boxes? > > Also the Exabytes are quite expensive in their Mac incarnation. How > difficult is it to hang a Mac SCSI cable off a SUN Exabyte drive? In early July, before we had heard of Retrospect Remote, our department ordered a PCPC DATstream and 50 copies of NetStream software. We ordered 50 copies of NetStream so we could get the volume discount of $77 a copy, even though we only have about 35 users right now. We were told by their sales department that NetStream only works with PCPC's backup devices. We were told it would ship Real Soon Now for about a month, when we read about Retrospect Remote on the front page of MacWEEK. We called Dantz and got invites to a preview of Retrospect Remote during MacWorld. We were thoroughly impressed, and canceled the PCPC order immediately. Note that at the last minute PCPC decided not to attend MacWorld, and from speaking to them on the phone, it sounds like they are going through some internal shuffling. Here's a summary of what we learned about Retrospect Remote: - Retrospect Remote is supposed to ship in mid September. I HAVE NOT ACTUALLY TESTED IT IN A REAL WORK ENVIRONMENT. - installation consists of dragging a small cdev into each user's system folder. There is no serialization until the user has been configured. This software will list for only $250 for 10 licenses. - after that instalation everything is centrally administered. This inlcudes scheduling the backup, selecting what files to backup, restoring files, and some security features. Each user can specify a private area of their hard disk which will not be available for backup. - The Mac which will have the backup device(s) attatched needs one copy of the regular version of Retrospect. Volumes attached to any Mac on the AppleTalk internet (ie across networks and zones) that has Restrospect Remote installed may be selected for backup. Otherwise the interface is the same as before. Users can do a Finder Shut Down when they leave for the day, and Retrospect Remote will trap the ShutDown, wait until the scheduled backup is performed, then allow the ShutDown to complete. This is important for those who have sensitive information on their Macs and are usin g security software that requires a password at startup. It would be difficult to abort the ShutDown and gain access to the hard disk. - Dantz strongly recommends the Mac that will have the backup device attatched be connected to the network with an ethernet card, because LocalTalk adversely affects performance (except on a IIfx). Client Macs can be on LocalTalk. For performance reasons, they suggest a maximum of 130 clients, but there is no inherent limit in the software. They use ADSP to transport the data over the network, which allows them to come close to the theoretical limit for transfer speed on LocalTalk. - Dantz has been in the Mac backup business since 1985. They wrote Diskfit under contract, and have been selling Retrospect since summer 1989. They do not sell hardware, so backup device manufacturers give them inside information which lets them support "every backup device you can connect to a Mac, except 9 track mag tape." It doesn't matter whose name is on the outside of the box; Retrospect has its own drivers that work with the hardware on the inside. This means it should work with any 8mm tape drive since they're all made by the same company, Exabyte. We asked the president and his brother, who wrote the software, if they had any preference between 8mm drives vs DAT drives. They said "There's only one company making 8mm data drives in the US, and the lack of competition shows. DAT is the way to go." There are only four manufacturers of data DAT drives for the Mac, but there are two standards for formatting data: DataDAT and DDS. Sony, Wangtek, and WangDAT all use the DDS format, which seems likely to become the prevailing standard. Dantz would not comment on relative reliablilty of those three manufacturers, only that they were all fine. DAT media costs $20 for 1300 meg, while 8mm is only $5 for 2300 meg, but either way we're talking only a few cents/meg. DAT drives can go from one end of the tape to the other in 20 seconds, 8mm takes 15 minutes. APS (back pages of MacWEEK) is selling a WangDAT for $1999 including Retrospect. We are going to order one from somewhere within a week. Mike Wiese MIT Information Services mlwiese@eagle.mit.edu
lemke@radius.com (Steve Lemke) (08/30/90)
mlwiese@eagle.mit.edu (Mike Wiese) writes: >"DAT is the way to go." >Dantz would not comment on relative reliablilty of those three >manufacturers, only that they were all fine. DAT media costs $20 for 1300 >meg, while 8mm is only $5 for 2300 meg, but either way we're talking only >a few cents/meg. DAT drives can go from one end of the tape to the >other in 20 seconds, 8mm takes 15 minutes. > >APS (back pages of MacWEEK) is selling a WangDAT for $1999 including >Retrospect. We are going to order one from somewhere within a week. Be sure to check out the Micronet DAT drive as well. I can't recall what we paid for it (with developer discount), but we bought it at the same time we bought two 600mb Micronet (Imprimis) hard drives, for use with an Apple- Share server. The DAT drive actually sits on a workstation, and backs up the server over Ethernet. It's worked really well for us, and it came with Retrospect. We're really looking forward to getting Retrospect Remote, since (theoretically) it should let us back up all of our QuickMail servers without having to shut them down. --Steve -- ----- Steve Lemke, Engineering Quality Assurance, Radius Inc., San Jose ----- ----- Reply to: lemke@radius.com (Note: NEW domain-style address!!) -----