Tim Jones
Forum Replies Created
-
Keep in mind that the bundles and pricing shown are “general” in nature. As it mentions on the web site, we’re happy to adjust the package contents for HBAs and cables if you’re already set.
As for our support package, I believe that anyone that has interacted with our team will quickly admit that we stand behind our support plans. Also, unlike so many other vendors, that 1 year of support includes all updates / upgrades to the software that’s included with the bundle.
Tim
—
Tim Jones
CTO – TOLIS Group, Inc.
https://www.productionbackup.com
BRU … because it’s the RESTORE that matters! -
Not trying to throw a wet towel on your find – and that is a good price, but does that $1,800 include the external drive, ATTO ExpressSAS H680 and the SAS cable?
I know the physical costs of these items and anyone selling them as a bundle for that price is either taking a loss, selling refurbished, limited warranty items, or selling gray-market units that were originally sold to another OEM. Double check with the vendor that these are not refurbished and that the full manufacturers’ warranties are in affect from the time of YOUR purchase.
Just use caution as there is a reason why everyone else’s prices are higher on these things.
Tim
—
Tim Jones
CTO – TOLIS Group, Inc.
https://www.productionbackup.com
BRU … because it’s the RESTORE that matters! -
Sorry, Bob – I got my Tim’s confused :)…
Tim
—
Tim Jones
CTO – TOLIS Group, Inc.
https://www.productionbackup.com
BRU … because it’s the RESTORE that matters! -
Hi Tim,
What kind of budget are you looking at? Our LTO-4 solution is still very viable (800GB/tape at ~90MB/sec) and the full bundle price including BRU PE is $2,699 and includes everything form the ATTO SAS card to the cables and starter media.
Check out: ArGest Desktop Bundles
Tim
—
Tim Jones
CTO – TOLIS Group, Inc.
https://www.productionbackup.com
BRU … because it’s the RESTORE that matters! -
Hi Bob and all,
LTFS is LTFS in the manner in which it works. All of the major vendors are simply repackaging the default code produced by IBM back in 2010 with the minor updates that have occurred.
Since we have the LTFS source code and build our own version here to provide purchasers of the TOLIS Group version of the HP tape solutions, we are fully invested in testing the versions of LTFS that are available for OS X, Linux, and Windows. This is how we know that our caveats list still stands as correct after over 3 years.
On the other hand, what we do not test are the add-on packages like Crossroads or Codex and the like as these are not LTFS but rather those companies’ custom wrappers and extensions to the LTFS format.
Therefore, whether you’re getting your primary LTFS drivers from HP, IBM, Tandberg Data, Imation, Quantum, or any other drive vendor for OS X, Linux or Windows, the core to the LTFS mechanisms is the same. And, all of them will tell you the same thing when something gets sideways – it’s open source software.
Tim
—
Tim Jones
CTO – TOLIS Group, Inc.
https://www.productionbackup.com
BRU … because it’s the RESTORE that matters! -
Check and see if you have your systems set to allow the disks to sleep. Motion checks all volumes at start, so if any of your drives is asleep, it will pause startup and give you the color pizza.
Also, even if you don’t have that option checked in Power Settings, some external chassis (USB mainly) power their drives down regardless of the system setting.
Tim
—
Tim Jones
CTO – TOLIS Group, Inc.
https://www.productionbackup.com
BRU … because it’s the RESTORE that matters! -
I’m definitely not faulting your logic, and knowing the issues that can evolve with LTFS means that “I” could definitely make it work, but “I” have over 30 years involved in system backup operations and using tape in its various formats.
The question that you need to keep in mind is “if I lose one 1.5TB LTFS tape, how much will it cost me to recreate the data?” Don’t get me wrong, I’m not implying that BRU’s format can save you from a physically lost or damaged tape, but at least we don’t list circumstances that can cause complete tape content loss through normal use of a tape as LTFS does. For example, if you are in the middle of a BRU-based backup and you lose power, you can recover everything that was written to the tape up to the point of power loss. With LTFS, you’ve lost the whole tape’s contents – even stuff that was successfully written previously to that tape.
I agree that the “proof is in the tasting of the pudding,” so run with LTFS for a while. If you do determine that you need more, while I can’t speak to the other solutions, BRU will be here to help you out.
Tim
—
Tim Jones
CTO – TOLIS Group, Inc.
https://www.productionbackup.com
BRU … because it’s the RESTORE that matters! -
“Just seems like $500 for such simple functionality is a lot, especially when LTFS at least on paper will do this for free. I won’t be doing this every day… perhaps something more like once a month.”
That’s like saying that $999 for an NLE is a lot for such simple functionality as an editing suite.
If it was easy to do tape I/O on computer systems, everybody would be doing it. And, since Apple has set the bar to entry pretty high because of the complex nature of the low level API, it’s even more difficult on the Mac than on other platforms.
Remember, you’re paying for the free-ness of LTFS by taking full responsibility for its operation if something doesn’t work. With the paid solutions, you get both a better user experience and someone to call if you have questions or run into an issue.
Tim
—
Tim Jones
CTO – TOLIS Group, Inc.
https://www.productionbackup.com
BRU … because it’s the RESTORE that matters! -
I’ve just gotten started in multi-cam shoots, but I like to include Camera info beyond the EXIF data (which camera, which type of SD/CF card). Also, if you’re doing a lot of outdoor shooting, things like temperature and generalized sky conditions (I actually take shots of the sky at the start and end of a shoot) can also be important for later examination of a clip.
Tim
—
Tim Jones
CTO – TOLIS Group, Inc.
https://www.productionbackup.com
BRU … because it’s the RESTORE that matters! -
I believe that what you’re seeing for 4 drives is about right. Like I said, it’s “approximately” 4x the performance of a single spindle. There is a bit of overhead to slice and dice the data between the drives.
Unless you’re also planning on moving to some serious number of drives (more than 6 or 8), a dedicated RAID card won’t really boost performance in RAID 0 (striped) mode on newer processors. However, for RAID 5, you’ll need to move to a dedicated HBA since the Windows software RAID options don’t include proper levels beyond concatenation, striping, and mirroring (JBOD, RAID-0, and RAID-1). I really prefer ATTO’s ExpressSAS R680 to the other brands that we tested.
As for protection, while RAID 5 will help if one drive fails (and only if you’re paying attention and replace the failed drive immediately), you should NEVER consider RAID a replacement for backup.
Of course, I’m spoiled since I work with LTO tape all of the time, so my ArGest SSD20 Cube has an LTO-6 drive for backup and long-term archival (of course, I use BRU, but there are other solutions for Windows) in addition to the SSD drives.
For my personal Windows 7 PC, I use the ATTO ExpressSAS H680 and use Windows dynamic volumes in striped mode for the disks. As an aside, I was using a generic Adaptec SAS HBA, but the move to ATTO has improved stability and throughput to both the SSDs and the tape.
This setup works great for me whether I’m using Adobe’s CS6/CC suite, Vegas, or just playing Starcraft :).
Tim
—
Tim Jones
CTO – TOLIS Group, Inc.
https://www.productionbackup.com
BRU … because it’s the RESTORE that matters!