Questions tagged [tape]

Tapes are used by a tape backup machine.

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62 votes
8 answers
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What are the advantages of tape drives?

IBM still develop and sell tape drives today. The capacity of them seems to be on a par with today's hard drives, but the search time and transfer rate are both significantly lower than that of hard ...
kba's user avatar
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22 votes
3 answers
15k views

Are RDX removable disks a good replacement for LTO tape?

Over a period of three weeks, I experienced six complete failures of LTO-1 and LTO-2 tape drives at client sites. Some had failed mechanisms. Others lost the ability to write reliably. These were HP ...
ewwhite's user avatar
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20 votes
7 answers
1k views

Is there still a place for tape storage?

We've backed up our data on LTO tapes for years and it's a real comfort to know we have everything on tape. A sister project and one of our data providers have both moved to 100% disk storage because ...
Jon Ericson's user avatar
19 votes
4 answers
14k views

Determining LTO Cleaning Tape Expiration?

I have some LTO tape drives, and use cleaning tapes as required, but the lifetime of the cleaning tapes is not as predictable as I would have expected. I'm looking for a way to query the system, ...
Tim S.'s user avatar
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16 votes
3 answers
3k views

Tape encryption management & best practices

I want to enable encryption on all of my backup tapes. I more-or-less know how to do this technically, but the procedural and human elements of implementing this are tricky. I use HP LTO4 drives ...
lukecyca's user avatar
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16 votes
5 answers
4k views

Determine remaining capacity of LTO tape

How can I determine how much space is remaining on an LTO tape? If I seek to the end and check the status, I can see I am on file number 17, but what I do not know is how large each file was. $ mt -...
Matt Clark's user avatar
15 votes
4 answers
13k views

Why do companies still use tape drives? [closed]

I found this, but it doesn't really answer my question. Disks even in the 1-2 TB range are much cheaper than tapes, yet I saw that Google uses tape drives for backup. What is their (disks) primary ...
ember arlynx's user avatar
13 votes
2 answers
893 views

Do LTO tapes have spare/unused capacity?

As I understand it, LTO tapes write data in "wraps", where the first wrap unspools the tape into the drive, and the second wrap spools it back into the cartridge. This process is repeated a number of ...
Malvineous's user avatar
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13 votes
4 answers
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If LTO-3 full backup takes more than one tape. What is my next step hardware wise?

OK. some givens to factor in I use Backup Exec 12.x/13.x, Have server 2003/2008 environment including Exchange. I have Backup to Disk (Full/Diff) happening that is independent of the backup to LTO (...
12 votes
4 answers
1k views

How to use the full LTO-2 Tape backup capacity of 200/400GB?

I have an Ultrium 448 tape drive, LTO-2 tapes (200/400GB) and I'm using HP Data Protector as the backup client. The system is set to format and overwrite all tapes but I never manage to get more that ~...
Andrew Hoole's user avatar
11 votes
2 answers
2k views

How do you monitor the performance of a character device (e.g. tape drive)?

There are many ways to monitor block device performance: dstat and iostat, heck, even sar will give you data on block device I/O rates. Unfortunately, I don't know of any good spur-of-the-moment ...
Slartibartfast's user avatar
9 votes
2 answers
9k views

Backup ZFS snapshots to tape (both full and diff)

What would be the best way to implement an LTO tape-based backup system on a ZFS fileserver? I've got about 6TB that need to be backed up on a daily basis, along with an existing HP 1840 LTO4 tape ...
growse's user avatar
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8 votes
4 answers
379 views

Should static data be backed up every time to tape?

In the Backup and Recovery book, they write it is good practice to make a full backup every month, and then increments or differential back up each week. What if I have 800GB data and ~10GB changes ...
Sandra's user avatar
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8 votes
2 answers
380 views

What is "deduplication"?

I mean, I can look up the dictionary definition, but why is everyone suddenly talking about it in reference to virtual tape libraries? What's "new" here so that it's so much in the news lately?
lavinio's user avatar
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8 votes
2 answers
3k views

Linux LTO-4/5/6 Hardware AES Drive Encryption

For a number of reasons I have been trying to find a way to encrypt my backup tapes. I'm currently running Bacula for my backups and it's support for Drive based encryption is I have to call a script ...
Squidly's user avatar
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8 votes
2 answers
3k views

Do I need to run a verfication on LTO tape backups even though the drives themselves perform verification as they write?

We have an LTO-3 Tape drive in a Dell media library that we use for our tape backups. The article about LTO on Wikipedia states that: LTO uses an automatic verify-after-write technology to ...
Chris Magnuson's user avatar
7 votes
2 answers
11k views

Tape Storage - How do I setup a tape backup system for use with my NAS

I currently have a QNAP NAS with a raid 5 config (~600gb storage) but don't have a reliable backup solution. I've heard great things about tape backup systems (reliability, durability, etc..). How ...
John Himmelman's user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
3k views

Why is not DPM 2012 treating my tapes as free even if they should be?

I have a DPM 2012 server (but I've heard the same behaviour happens with DPM 2010) I'm using to backup my environment; it's connected to a single tape drive (no library), so tape rotation is manual. ...
Massimo's user avatar
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7 votes
2 answers
7k views

Bacula & Multiple Tape Devices, and so on

Bacula won't make use of 2 tape devices simultaneously. (Search for #-#-# for the TL;DR) A little background, perhaps. In the process of trying to get a decent working backup solution (backing up >...
Tom O'Connor's user avatar
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6 votes
5 answers
6k views

Tape vs SSDs backups regarding long-term storage reliability

My question is very specifically about solid state drives, not regular hard drives. I would like to put in place a grandfather-father-son backup scheme, with the SSDs being used for the grandfather ...
user66131's user avatar
6 votes
4 answers
2k views

How many bad tapes are "normal"? [closed]

I use Quantum DLT-S4 tapes (800/1600GB) in my library, which has two Quantum tape heads in it. I have had quite a few bad tapes i.e. tapes that come up "CRC error" or "cannot read tape" etc and the ...
PowerApp101's user avatar
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6 votes
1 answer
153 views

Off site Secure Tape storage [closed]

I was wondering who uses off site tape storage for their backups and their Positives and Negatives with each system. My basic requirements are secure storage, HIPPA certified, or SAS certified would ...
Squidly's user avatar
  • 1,765
6 votes
2 answers
675 views

Backing up oracle to TAPE

our Oracle database has grown very large as of late ~= 400 - 500 GB and saving to filesystem is not scalable anymore to us. We are looking at using RMAN to backup to tape (directly, not to fs then ...
Andreas Wong's user avatar
6 votes
3 answers
1k views

Best way to deal with DC600A tapes with deteriorating tension bands?

I have probably ~200 DC600A quarter-inch cartridge backup tapes from the late 80s and early-mid 90s. I have 2 drives that are capable of reading DC600A tapes, but the drives were destroying tapes. ...
user48641's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
374 views

8mm Data8 tape drive compatibility for Maxell HS-8/112 and 3M D8-112

We have a Exabyte Mammoth-2 tape drive connected to a Solaris 10 box that's currently able to restore any Exabyte media no problem, but we have two other brands of 8mm tape that are shown as "illegal ...
grephappiness's user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
390 views

Pre-labelled LTO-6/LTFS tape numbers- Are the tape numbers stored somewhere on the tape?

I have some Fujifilm LTO-6 tapes which come labelled with tape numbers. I'm writing a script and I would like to assign a variable from the tape number. Is this information stored anywhere on the tape?...
neilH's user avatar
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6 votes
2 answers
954 views

A decent Windows tape backup program to replace NTBackup

I'm running Veeam right now to back up VMs to disk which is great, but I like taking home a tape every night as an offsite backup. Integration with NTBackup is simple, just put a "ntbackup backup [vm ...
John Hoge's user avatar
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5 votes
4 answers
6k views

writing LTO-3 tapes with a LTO-4 drive

Apparently LTO-4 drives can both read and write LTO-3 tapes. Are these tapes fully compatible with LTO-3 drives? I'm interested in real life experience more than theoretical vendor-touted ...
wazoox's user avatar
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5 votes
7 answers
1k views

Inexpensive degaussers or HDD shredders?

Apologies, I'll simplify my question: Are there any degaussers or HDD shredders out there in the $500-1500 range designed for use as such that you would recommend for low-volume use?
Nicholas Knight's user avatar
5 votes
18 answers
6k views

How to Eliminate Tape Backup and Off-site Storage Service?

PLEASE READ UPDATE AT THE BOTTOM. THANKS! ;) Environment Info (all Windows): 2 sites 30 servers site #1 (3TB of backup data) 5 servers site #2 (1TB of backup data) MPLS backbone tunnel connecting ...
Daniel Lucas's user avatar
  • 1,192
5 votes
5 answers
358 views

Backup solution (includes tape backup)

What would be the best Linux based solution for backup (later maybe tape backup too). There are Bacula, Amanda, and others. Any suggestions which to learn ? (Now I use compressed tarballs simply)
Glendyr's user avatar
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5 votes
2 answers
471 views

tar file modified bit (am I being BS'd to?)

I'm working on a project where I'll be using tar to incrementally backup data on a server to a number of tapes. According to a senior co-worker of mine, tar will "set special flags on files so that ...
Russell C's user avatar
  • 115
5 votes
2 answers
274 views

Tape backup size versus file retention time

How we back up We currently have a file server that is backed up to tape. The backups are incremental which means the files that have changed since the last backup get written to tape. Over time the ...
James M's user avatar
  • 153
5 votes
6 answers
4k views

How do you physically transport your backup media?

I currently back up to LTO-3 tapes, and I'm about to cross the threshold where a full backup will not fit on a single tape any more; the weekly and monthly backups will span two tapes. Well, I ...
Nic's user avatar
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5 votes
2 answers
372 views

Anyone using VTL for backups?

I would like to know if VTL is really a valid option nowadays? Is anyone here using it and why actually? Does it have any benefits compared to a regular server stuffed with SATA drives in RAID6/10? ...
Net Runner's user avatar
  • 6,229
5 votes
3 answers
1k views

Hardware compression on tape drives: does it still make sense?

Does hardware compression still make sense on tape drives, considering the performance of modern CPUs? Also, what should I do if I have some data which is already compressed in GZIP and my drive is ...
Laurent's user avatar
  • 283
5 votes
1 answer
2k views

What kind of algorithm is used in LTO tape hardware compression?

LTO tape drives, from their very first generation, offer hardware compression that, theoretically, allows a maximum of 2 - 2.5x the rated data capacity of each cartridge to be stored, with only a ...
Mikey T.K.'s user avatar
  • 1,417
5 votes
2 answers
504 views

Tape backup software for putting multiple backup sets on one tape [closed]

I'm currently trying to install a new tape backup environment (LTO 7, hardware is already set up). As LTO 7 tapes provide a LOT of data space (6/15TB per tape), and the backups that need to be stored ...
Daniel's user avatar
  • 73
5 votes
1 answer
76 views

Can SAS Tape Drive (HP StoreEver 6250) used with LSI SAS 9200-8e-HP?

I plan to buy secondhand HP StoreEver 6250 tape drive for backup purpose, but not sure what SAS Card that are compatible with that device and works on ubuntu seamlessly. One of the SAS card that I saw ...
Kokizzu's user avatar
  • 219
5 votes
4 answers
2k views

What could cause an LTO drive to write at half its capacity?

I have an LTO4 drive that when given even new LTO4 tapes, only writes around 460GiB to the tape even though the tape's uncompressed capacity is supposed to be 800GB. I have noticed that in one ...
Malvineous's user avatar
  • 1,145
5 votes
4 answers
4k views

Symantec Backup Exec 12 Tape Alert

Every day, I run 5 backups using 6 tapes. Each day, when I run the inventory, I get a tape alert Error. This occurs every day, on the same job. The error is: Job 'Inventory Daily ************' has ...
user avatar
4 votes
3 answers
2k views

Compression on tape set..but at 2.27TB..end of space

I have a LTO6 tape inserted tapeinfo -f /dev/st0 Product Type: Tape Drive Vendor ID: 'QUANTUM ' Product ID: 'ULTRIUM 6 ' Revision: '4142' Attached Changer API: No SerialNumber: 'HU1322VW9U' ...
elbarna's user avatar
  • 328
4 votes
2 answers
1k views

Internal LTO tape drive becomes hot

We use an internal LTO3 tape drive (HP Ultrium 920) in a PC (no particular server hardware) running Linux. The tape drive becomes quite hot - I don't have the exact temperature, but you may touch it ...
claasz's user avatar
  • 510
4 votes
5 answers
883 views

what are you using to store your LTO3 tapes?

I have about 50-75 LTO3 tapes stacked in my server room. Does anyone have any creative solutions on how to properly store them so they're easily accessed? All the LTO3 cabinets I see are thousands of ...
Michael's user avatar
  • 506
4 votes
4 answers
1k views

Ultrium 3 tape drive shoe-shining, 3Mb/s: and it's not the cable

I have a HP 960 Ultrium 3 tape drive. Since I got it, (second hand, £90) I've been experiencing shoe-shining. Writing with tar in Linux, I average about 3Mb/s write speed. I've tried replacing both ...
mowsala's user avatar
  • 43
4 votes
4 answers
6k views

Linux tape drive throughput performance statistics

Does anyone know a way, (other than using SystemTap + iostat-scsi.stp script), to get Tape Drive performance statistics? Server: Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 5.7 (Tikanga) Kernel 2.6.18-...
awojo's user avatar
  • 224
4 votes
5 answers
2k views

Choosing the right backup solution - SCSI vs SATA tape drives

I'm backing up about 100gb worth of data on backup exec and after much deliberation, have decided that tapes are worth another shot (after my ultrium decided to die and munch tapes). Bearing in mind ...
atomicharri's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
6k views

Backup to tape on server 2012

It seems that Windows Backup Server on 2012 does not backup to tape, only to block storage devices. Anyone know if there is a way of backing up to tape on server 2012, just like the old ntbackup used ...
NickC's user avatar
  • 2,513
4 votes
1 answer
503 views

Is it possible to pass through a IDE tape drive to a virtual machine?

My department does conversions for people who bought our software to get their data out of their old system and in to our system. Often they will be running odd or archaic systems that the only way to ...
Scott Chamberlain's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
531 views

Are LTO Hardware compression and encryption standardized?

I'm about to setup a backup using an LTO-4 Drive. I know that drives are meant to be compatible to any tape within the past 3 generations (so I should be able to read an LTO-4 tape using an LTO-4, 5 ...
Michael Stum's user avatar
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