[plug] removeable media drives + Linux

[Craig Ringer]

> I'm looking at purchasing a removeable media drive of some type for 
> backup of large amounts of data.  Of course the drive has to be fully 
> capable of being used under Linux properly (as it'll be in/connected to 
> the Samba machine).  Basically I'm looking for something that has a 
> minimum native (uncompressed) data storage size in excess of 120Gb 
> (160-180Gb would be better).

Say hello to SDLT/160. You won't like the price tag, but in the end it 
might be cheaper (!!).

  	
hp StorageWorks SDLT 160/320 GB internal tape drive - carbon
•  	160 GB native capacity
•  	Ultra2 SCSI, SE/LVD interface (switchable)
•  	80 MB/s (burst) maximum transfer rate
•  	70 seconds average access time
•  	40 sec/12 sec load/unload time

US$4,999*
Business Lease $142.12/month (48 months).


HP's site is good to look around to get an idea of what's out there:
http://www.hp.com/country/au/eng/prodserv/storage.html

Hot-swappable HDDs are an alternative at that sort of capacity 
requirement. Its not cost-effective with SCSI disks, but look into 
Seagate Barracuda V SATA disks, since SATA supports clean hot swapping.

If you plan to do proper backup rotation, say keeping daily backups for 
a month then a monthly backup that goes to the archival storage, your 
costs will be pretty high with the HDD based solution, though. Thats why 
tape always wins in the end. Tapes aren't cheap, but HDDs are worse.

hp super DLTtape I data cartridge, 220-320 GB
•  	Promotional price of $88.00 in effect until 7/1/2003
•  	Up to 320 GB compressed capacity
•  	540 m tape length
•  	Recommended for all 110/220 GB and 160/320 GB SDLT compliant drives 
(Not Compatible with DLT III, DLT IV, DLT1 or DLT VS drives)
•  	Archival life of 30 years
•  	Limited Lifetime Warranty
	
US$88*

Here at the POST we're using DDS4 for a 20 + gb native capacity, and 
that's all we really need. Its big enough to write entire server 
partitions to tape (/usr, /, etc) as images, and to back up all user 
data that changes over a week. Snapshots of archival data are kept on 
hard disks. This system is working well for us.

> Backing up to another machine with a bunch of hard disks over the LAN 
> isn't an option.  Management want something that one of them can take 
> home with them in a box daily (I'm glad I'm not the one having to take 
> it home).

Another machine with drive cages and hot-swappable SATA drives? Tape is 
likely to be better in the long run, though.

> Just wanting to know if anyone has any suggestions, comments, tips or 
> experiences to share?

Tape is great. Grab yesterday's tape and put it in your bag. Load 
today's tape. Leave.