Re: backup takes too long

In article <5kqbf8$r9b@cssun.mathcs.emory.edu>, From ennis@ssax.com (Bill Ennis), the following was written: > You may want to look at onarchive which allows parallel backup > to multiple tape drives. This will require some setup to implement. > How much data do you have? I was able to backup 3.5 GB in 40 minutes > the other day using plain ontape. At that rate 40 hours could > back up about 210 GB. > > Another option is a faster tape drive. > > -Bill Bill, I've got to disagree with you big time. Onarchive is a nightmare, and should not be used for anything. Take the lead from Informix, and dump it. (That's why they wrote onbar!) Your "this will require some setup" is putting it mildly. I am a data protection expert, and worked with Onarchive for many months. Short version: 1) read the manual 4 times 2) went to the official class 3) spent 4 months designing and testing a solution 4) tried ~3~ times to do a recovery using the backups. 5) After multiple failures, we gave up, bought a bigger/faster drive and went back to ontape. If you need a faster backup, do one of the following: 1) buy a faster drive (12 m/s drives available now for $$$$) 2) backup to disk (although officially unsupported) 3) get a commercial backup package and onbar (my recommendation) -- I am currently writing a book for O'Reilly Publishing about enterprise backup and recovery, and would really appreciate hearing anything you would like to ask me or tell me. If you have problems with something, then others will as well. Can you think of anything else that should go in such a book?