Tape Drive Backups

Question

Not sure if this falls in the ServerFault category, but I need to spec up a Tape Drive Backup Machine and I am not sure in regards of the technology and how Dat Drives are compared. Can someone give me some hints? What is considered to be a good backup machines and what sort of specs should it have to be considered sufficient?

Answer 1

DAT currently maxes out at 320GB, has been there for ~3 years. It doesn't seem like anyone id developting new drives or capacities.
LTO currently maxes out at 2500GB, and 6400 & 12800GB models are on their way (at speeds of 160, 315, and 472 MB/s respectively).

I can't imagine why anyone would buy a DAT drive these days, the capacity and speed is horrible compared to the alternatives. Cloud based backup solutions would likely be cheaper per the benefit.

As for the rest of the backup server, any modern server from a reputable name would be sufficient to make the tape drive the bottleneck. For example, a HP ML350 with an Ultrium 448 Internal SAS (LTO-6 drive) could be had for $3500

_{Depending on your exact needs this could be higher, I really don't know enough about your situation to give an accurate price, this is pretty much a realistic minimum). Contact a local consultant or an HP reseller for a better quote. HP ReNew equipment is cheaper too...}