Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!bellcore!rutgers!ucsd!ucbvax!SCROLLS.WHARTON.UPENN.EDU!shull
From: shull@SCROLLS.WHARTON.UPENN.EDU (Christopher E. Shull)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apollo
Subject: RE: Large scale backups
Message-ID: <8808241122.AA00110@scrolls.wharton.upenn.edu>
Date: 24 Aug 88 11:22:04 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 38

>Date: 16 Aug 88 22:33:23 GMT
>From: dj@CS.UCLA.EDU
>Subject: Large scale backups
>
>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?
>
Nothing new to add really, but an independent recommendation is always
valuable.  We bought Workstation Solutions' ExaTape (SCSI 8mm video) system
earlier this summer.  It works great.  We didn't get their software that
supports distributed backups, but I am trying to get some other University
of Pennsylvania Apollo sites to share the cost.

The ExaTape works very well with the special "standard" software that
Workstation Solutions provides.  I typically backup 500 MB on six nodes
in just under 4 hours.  (Some of the nodes were running compute-bound
tasks while their disks were being backed up.)

What else can I say?

-Chris

Christopher E. Shull
Decision Sciences Department
The Wharton School                      shull@wharton.upenn.edu
University of Pennsylvania              shull@scrolls.wharton.upenn.edu
Philadelphia, PA  19104-6366            215/898-5930
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Damn the torpedoes!  Full speed ahead!"  Admiral Farragut, USN, 1801-1870
---------------------------------------------------------------------------