Backup Software

[Charles Steinkuehler]

> My personal favorite is Novastor's Novenet.  It's fairly easy and
> intuitive, and you can actually setup linux servers as backup servers
> unlike Veritas, and Legato.

Thanks for the feedback.  I'll check out Novanet...especially since I just
got the quote back from Arkeia:

1 KS-BK-MLB 1 Arkeia Mini LAN $690 $690.00

2 KS-LIB-QUANT-DLT4700
1 Quantum DLT4700 (7 DLT) $950 $950.00
===========
Product subtotal $1,640.00
KS-UPDAT-1Y Software update subscription 1 year $278.80
KS-SUPP-1SSP One Star Support Program $849.20
KS-SHIP-1 Shipping and Handling Continental US $20.00
===========
Product total $2,788.00

Ouch!  I'm willing to spend some money on my home backup solution, but I was
hoping for something $1000 or less.  I'm checking to see if the support
program is mandator, and $950 just to talk to my (now ancient) DLT-4700 tape
library...that's almost 40% more than the backup software!  YIKES!!  <sigh>

BTW:
Have you ever used Novanet with a tape library and/or DLT tapes?

Also, what was your experience with restores (if any)?

I've had problems with Veritas (Backup Exec) when trying to restore from
Exabyte drives, which is part of why I now like to use DLT (the restore
stopped and refused to continue at the first tape read error...a *BIG*
problem when using Exabyte 8mm drives, which are known for tape dropouts).
Also, is it just me, or does it seem like restores are the "bastard
step-child" of most of the less-expensive backup packages?  I've always had
way more problems trying to restore data than I ever run into when backing
up.  Saddly, I haven't worked with enough of the higher-end backup packages
to know if this is a general trend, or if it's unique to the low-end of the
market (or maybe just my lack of experience...I run backups daily, but
restore rarely :)

Charles Steinkuehler
charles at steinkuehler.net