Tim Jones
Forum Replies Created
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Sam – thank you for your consideration. We will always work very hard to make sure that BRU lives up to both our claims and your expectations. Unlike what some backup solution providers believe, those two things are NOT mutually exclusive :).
One thing that has been a stable element with BRU is our full support of old archives. The version of BRU that we create today MUST restore the data from some DDS-1, QIC150, and Exabyte 8200 8MM test tapes created as far back as 1988. Heck, even TAR can’t make a claim of that level of backwards compatibility.
Please don’t hesitate to make requests for new features since we serve no purpose if we’re not doing what you need.
Tim
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Tim Jones
CTO – TOLIS Group, Inc.
https://www.productionbackup.com
BRU … because it’s the RESTORE that matters! -
Tom –
If the user doesn’t buy those various solutions – they get none of those features. That’s my point. Maybe “propriety” wasn’t the right word, but the lack of your (and their) extra cost components means that the user doesn’t gain access to those features without spending quite a bit more money (your’s being the lesser of the crowd).
I was comparing LTO-6 to LTO-6. If you wish to compare LTO-5, then our solution drops to $6,973. And, because we ARE connected by direct attach SAS (which only adds $499 if you need Thunderbolt II), you get full drive performance of 140MB/sec (LTO-5) or 180MB/sec (LTO-6) instead of 1GbE speed (~85MB/sec to 95MB/sec). I understand that you try to mitigate this buy performing the disk-tape copy out of band so that the network isn’t involved in that step, but the user is still going to be impacted by the network infrastructure when originally copying the clips.
As for Discovery, it’s not just “early” issues as I’ve just gotten off a call with a producer that is VERY frustrated as Discovery have returned their LTFS tapes multiple times – and this is very recently. You can be as committed as you like to a given mechanism, but if the mechanism is flawed, all of the commitment in the world isn’t going to resolve the problems.
Again, none of those issues or additional financial overhead exist with BRU.
Tim
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Tim Jones
CTO – TOLIS Group, Inc.
https://www.productionbackup.com
BRU … because it’s the RESTORE that matters! -
[Matt Geier] “LTFS is an open standard, interchangeable with other LTO-5 and LTO-6 brands, and is also cross-platform, so you can use the tape as you would a USB flash drive. Simply load an LTFS-formatted tape into your LTO-5 or LTO-6 drive, mount it into the file system, and it becomes visible as if it were a disk. Currently, the Quantum LTFS software supports Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.”
Matt, I believe that you missed the line of the LTFS failure in Tim S’s original problem – the IBM LTO-5 drive is not being recognized by the IBM LTFS drivers/tool and he states that he is using the latest version of the drivers.
Also, some older IBM LTO-5 drives don’t have the LTFS support in their firmware which is why I recommended the firmware update.
Tim
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Tim Jones
CTO – TOLIS Group, Inc.
https://www.productionbackup.com
BRU … because it’s the RESTORE that matters! -
[Tom Goldberg] “I would note that several manufacturers, including Cache-A, have addressed the issues you are encountering. We support tape spanning as do, for example Crossroads and SDNA”
And, you pay quite a premium to get theses add-on abilities. These “features” also add a layer above LTFS that then obviate the LTFS open source status since you’re now adding proprietary wrappers around the LTFS core to get that new functionality.
- LTFS – Free with your drive
- BRU PE – $499
- PreRoll Post – $499
- Cache-A – PowerCache (required starting point) $10,995, 48 Slot, LTO-6 Library for tape support – $10,795
- Crossroads – StrongBox is available in three models, starting at $20,000 and scaling according to archive capacity and capabilities. StrongBox T1 manages up to 200 million files. StrongBox T3 manages up to 500 million files, and StrongBox T3 Advanced manages up to five billion files.
- StorageDNA – no hard pricing data has been made available, but some customers have indicated that the “get your foot in the door” pricing is over $10 and rises quickly for larger installations.
As you can see, you can get these added “features” from these vendors – but you need to be prepared for the sticker shock that accompanies what you think that you’re getting for free.
[Tom Goldberg] “For example, Discovery Communications now accepts from its content producers only LTFS for delivery of footage, graphics and program masters for all its various channels.”
And, according to our conversation with the folks at Discovery, their number one support issue is the inability to read LTFS tapes sent in from Clients.
BRU Server M&E and BRU PE, on the other hand, cost $499 and take care of all of these issues by NOT using LTFS. The tapes created are truly compatible across over 24 operating systems, provide full verification and autidability – even long after the backup operation – works with all vendors’ tape and library devices and don’t require that you search for your tape vendor’s proper LTFS drivers and support packages.
Tim
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Tim Jones
CTO – TOLIS Group, Inc.
https://www.productionbackup.com
BRU … because it’s the RESTORE that matters! -
And IBM isn’t providing any form of user support. This is one of the many issues with OSS – you break it, you get to keep both pieces.
Having said that, have you looked for an older version of the IBM LTFS layer? It may be that this version only supports the LTO-6 drives. Also, you may need to ref lash the drive to a later firmware version – but you’ll need a Windows or Linux system for that with IBM’s drives.
Tim
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Tim Jones
CTO – TOLIS Group, Inc.
https://www.productionbackup.com
BRU … because it’s the RESTORE that matters! -
[Sam Lee] “The LTFS is great when you archive. But restoring it is another story. It’s snail pace vs backup. Just not what I have in mind for LTO-6.”
Keep in mind that PreRoll Post uses LTFS…
Tim
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Tim Jones
CTO – TOLIS Group, Inc.
https://www.productionbackup.com
BRU … because it’s the RESTORE that matters! -
Yes you can run both on one machine and Both :). Unlike BRU PE (which is designed to e hands-on, interactive), BRU Server is a much more capable solution. You could be running backups to tape and also run multiple machine backups to disk (we call it staging).
You can also export catalogs from BRU Server for use in BRU PE.
Grab the BRU Server demo and take a look – the Quickstart Guide will get you up and running and doing your first client backup in around 10 minutes.
Tim
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Tim Jones
CTO – TOLIS Group, Inc.
https://www.productionbackup.com
BRU … because it’s the RESTORE that matters! -
Warning – vendor input 🙂
I may be a bit non-neutral, but that is exactly what our BRU Server product is designed for:
BRU Server from TOLIS Group, Inc.
Tim
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Tim Jones
CTO – TOLIS Group, Inc.
https://www.productionbackup.com
BRU … because it’s the RESTORE that matters! -
By short term, I was referring to the fact that many folks move up to a more dedicated option like CatDV or Axle.
Tim
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Tim Jones
CTO – TOLIS Group, Inc.
https://www.productionbackup.com
BRU … because it’s the RESTORE that matters! -
Sorry, Tom, but DAX Broadcast Archive and BRU Server were working natively with CatDV before the Cache-A plugin was available.
Tim
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Tim Jones
CTO – TOLIS Group, Inc.
https://www.productionbackup.com
BRU … because it’s the RESTORE that matters!