Tape Mechanisms and Network Performance

[amontgomery]

I have read that network performance can adversely affect the speed of a tape backup mechanism, such as DLT. I have read testimonials from tons of competitors proclaiming that their mechanisms are less susceptable to this problem then DLT/LTO/AIT/etc. But I can't find any hard information about these situations.

 

 

 

Now, I realize that this is a complicated senario. I'm not looking for a simple equation. But there have to be guidelines that someone could share. Keep in mind, I'm not looking for opinions. I have plenty of those. What I'm looking for is information. I'm looking for URL's, books, specifics about YOUR implimentation (if it is applicable).

 

 

 

I have a client that wants to back up 50 workstations and a large file server every night (if possible). Incrimental backups will probably be less than 10 GB per night, but recycles could be 80+ GB's per night. They are willing to spend money on the right solution. But I'm not going to ask them to spend $8000+ on an SDLT Library if it's going to be "shoe-shining" all night because I can't keep it saturated with data over a 100baseT full duplex, switched network.

 

 

 

They will be running the backup after business hours. It will most likely be running from a Mac OS X Server on a QuickSilver G4 with plenty of RAM. I need to recommend a backup mechanism that will meet their needs for capacity and speed.