[CentOS] Re: Planning Mail Server (with low resources)

Wed Dec 7 22:30:10 UTC 2005
Rodrigo Barbosa <rodrigob at suespammers.org>

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On Wed, Dec 07, 2005 at 02:20:08PM -0800, Bryan J. Smith wrote:
> Rodrigo Barbosa <rodrigob at suespammers.org> wrote:
> > At least around here, a 120G DLT tape costs less than half
> > the price of an HD of the same capacity.
> 
> Reality ...
> 
> When you're talking 100GB, most of the higher capacity,
> leading-edge technologies are $50-100/cartridge, _regardless_
> of the capacity.  So you're better off going with the
> latest/fastest/biggest capacity when you're going to spend 4
> figures.
> 
> Right now, that's multi-vendor LTO revision 3 -- 400GB
> (800GB) at 80MBps (160MBps) native (2:1 hardware).  DLT is
> slower and largely uni-vendor, HP, and even HP does LTO (and
> they do it better than DLT).  DLT should only be considered
> for legacy media compatibility.

I'm already sold for LTO-3 after this thread.

I just need to find some good supliers.

> > They also don't have mechanical parts built in, so the they
> > are less likely to fail.
> 
> Well, there _are_ still moving parts, just no mechanics. 
> Some of the new 1" hard drives are less fragile, taking even
> 800Gs.

Never used a 1" hard drive, so I can't really comment on that one.

> > Of course, I mean good tapes, not the el-cheapo ones.
> 
> By "el-cheapo" you mean?

Actually, I was talking about brand/vendors.

> > This is enough to show me it would be a waste of time to
> > show the flaws on your thinking. If you are looking at it
> > emotionaly, it is useless to explain anything to you.
> 
> Disk and tape are not a versus, they are a complement.
> 
> That's why I wrote the 2005 September Sys Admin article on
> VTLs, they are the evolution of _complete_ backup.
> 
> I guess I need to follow up with a blog entry on "scenarios."

Disks are good for (partial or full) HA, not backup. Some people call RAID a 
backup solution, and that is where mistakes happen.

For backups, use tapes.

I see now your line of thinking, but I don't agree with your terminology.

Yes, I think tapes and disks are complementary for an avaliability
(contingency, if you will) solution.

Your solution for a centralized backup server is one I would
recomend too, and have even implemented it on the past.


- -- 
Rodrigo Barbosa <rodrigob at suespammers.org>
"Quid quid Latine dictum sit, altum viditur"
"Be excellent to each other ..." - Bill & Ted (Wyld Stallyns)

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