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I am trying to create a new disk array that will have two purposes:

  1. Archiving data long-term
  2. nightly backups

This is replacing 10 TB configured across several consumer grade USB disks, Backup Exec 2010. I will be switching to SC DPM 2012. Connection for DPM to my understanding needs to be iSCSI or direct SCSI connection--not USB.

Storage needs by my calculation are a minimum of 6.5 TB: storing 7 incremental backups, and 4 full backups for both Exchange and our other databases and file servers. Ideally, we would start with 15-20 TB. For longer archiving, I could make use of our 15-tape LTO3 library: I don't want to rely solely on tape though.

Ideal budget is < $5,000, I would accept many compromises to get it down to < $2,000.

Can you offer any recommendations for how to go about purchasing the storage for this?

I have considered:

It seems like there are a lot of ways for me to go with this, but I don't know where to start to narrow down my research. I don't want to build a BackBlaze pod, that seems too much work.

If you were trying to buy some cheapish DAS, what products would you consider?

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    Cheap backup = backup that fails when you need it most.
    – longneck
    Jul 29, 2013 at 21:07
  • True, but if you read the question you can see I have an LTO3 tape library as well. I am looking for a solution that will work for disk-disk as just one component of my disaster recovery, and I am looking to upgrade my $500 solution to a $2-5000 level, which is cheap only in relative terms.
    – Quinten
    Jul 31, 2013 at 15:32

1 Answer 1

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This is going to get closed as we do not allow product recommendations on any stack exchange site (they attract spammers like dirt attracts flies, and they get outdated quickly).

That being said, you are spot on when it comes to what kind of disk subsystem DPM needs.

  • DPM expects the disk storage to be available at all times. USB disks are not supported
  • Software raid is not supported
  • You're highly encouraged to use RAID6, especially when using large (1TB++) disks
  • Use tapes for long term storage. Your LTO is a great fit for this.
  • Azure storage is short-term only for the time being. No words if they will provide long-term storage in the future.

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