Tape backup systems still play a vital role<\/p>\n
By Zatni Arbi<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): What has the love affair between business and
\ninformation technology (IT) brought us? Today we are swamped by
\ndata. It is now so easy to capture and collect data -- through
\nWebsites, through Point of Sales (POS) systems and through other
\nonline facilities.<\/p>\n
Some of this data is legal, some is not. A lot of it actually
\nbelongs to the gray area. Case in point is the data collected by
\nan Internet company called DoubleClick, which has been collecting
\ndata through five billion online ads that it serves. DoubleClick
\nhas been under forceful pressure from consumers and privacy
\nadvocates in the U.S. due to its plan to merge its data with the
\ndata on printed catalog consumers collected by Abacus Direct, a
\ncompany with which it struck a deal for a US$1.7 billion merger
\nlate last year.<\/p>\n
Black, white or gray, the volume of data collected since
\ncomputers became widely used in business is really staggering.
\nWith the Web now becoming the source of music, video and
\nbroadcasting, in addition to the ordinary \"passive\" data like
\nyour identity and mine, the Internet has caused the data storage
\nbusiness explode, as testified to by the recent IPOs of several
\ncompanies specializing in data storage.<\/p>\n
However, if your business relies on data storage, you must
\nalso have a data backup system. Much like security, data backup
\nshould be part of your IT plan right from the outset. Current
\nestimates say that there is a 3.5 percent probability a business
\nwill go bust if it ever suffers from a permanent loss of data.
\nToday, we discuss some of technology that is available on the
\nnewest tape backup offered by HP, the SureStore DAT40x6
\nAutoloader.<\/p>\n
Tape backup may seem to have disappeared into the background
\nas people take the single QIC (Quarter Inch Cartridge) Colorado
\ntape backup for granted. The fact is, new technology is still
\nbeing introduced to tape backup products, making them a reliable
\nsolution for small, medium and even large enterprises.<\/p>\n
For your home PC, however, investing in a tape backup would be
\noverkill. A Zip drive, a CD-Writer or an account at @backup (a
\nwebsite where you can store your backup files) is sufficient.<\/p>\n
Unattended backup<\/p>\n
Small enterprises are usually defined as companies with less
\nthan 100 employees and no permanent IT manager who would ensure
\nthat backup of data has been properly performed, tapes are
\nrotated correctly and the drive is clean and in good health.
\nTherefore, what they would like to have is a backup system that
\nmanages itself, in addition to automatically creating backup from
\nthe primary storage of their server or servers. Automated backup
\nis a must, because normal human beings simply hate having to get
\nout of their bed in the wee hours to do the backup in the ever-
\nshrinking backup window (in case you get a little curious, the
\nbackup window is a time span in which you can backup your data --
\ntypically after the last person in your organization stops
\nworking at night and before the first person starts working the
\nnext morning). The SureStore DAT40x6 is a good example of the
\nproducts that fit these requirements.<\/p>\n
Launched at the beginning of last month, this DAT-based tape
\nautoloader can be fed with up to six tape cartridges inserted
\ninto a magazine. The robotics inside the device will pick the
\ncorrect cartridge and insert it into the DAT drive. The included
\nTapeWare backup software will allow users to schedule automatic
\nbackup.<\/p>\n
This tape backup device uses DDS-4 data storage specification.
\nHowever, it is backward compatible, and can use DDS-3 and DDS-2
\nformats. It can read certain formats of DDS-1.<\/p>\n
Like several of its CD-Writer, HP has also added a automated
\ndisaster recovery feature to the tape backup. So, in case the
\nentire hard disk needs to be restored, for example after hardware
\ncrash and repair, the user will only need to press the Eject
\nbutton, power up the device and then reboot the server. Because
\neverything -- including a disaster recovery (DR) image -- has
\nbeen backed up on the tape, there will be no need to reload the
\noperating systems and applications from separate CDs or disks.<\/p>\n
I found the One Button Disaster Recovery feature that HP has
\nadded to this DAT autoloader quite interesting. While Unix
\nworkstations can traditionally boot from a tape drive, the BIOS
\nof a PC is not normally equipped with the capability to boot from
\na sequential storage system such as a tape (in a tape, data is
\nstored sequentially -- one after the other).<\/p>\n
So, as explained in the white paper that I got from HP, this
\nfeature has been added to make the tape drive work in a CD-ROM
\nmode. Once the PC is tricked into believing the drive is a CD-ROM
\ndrive, the system can boot from it as if from a bootable CD-ROM,
\nand everything -- operating system, applications and data -- can
\nbe restored. Once the restoration process is started, the system
\nwill reboot and the tape drive will assume its native mode.<\/p>\n
Other features<\/p>\n
As the tape itself may leave some particles on the drive's
\nhead, drive makers now add an automatic mechanism for cleaning
\nit. HP does it by loading a cleaning tape at a scheduled time.<\/p>\n
\"Suppose you use one tape cartridge to backup your data on
\nMonday, another for Tuesday and so on, you will use five
\ndifferent cartridges every week if your business runs from Monday
\nto Friday,\" explained Lee Chin Keong, Commercial Business Manager
\nof HP's AP Information Storage Group, \"The sixth cartridge
\ncontains the cleaning tape.\" Cleaning can be done on Sundays, for
\nexample. The drive also has a sapphire blade that constantly
\ntouches the tape surface and sweeps all the tape debris away.<\/p>\n
Everything that moves suffers from tear-and-wear, and a tape
\ndrive is no exception. The good thing about today's tape backup
\ndrives is that they are equipped with some intelligence that
\nconstantly measures the performance in real time and makes the
\nnecessary compensation to ensure the integrity of the backup
\ndata.<\/p>\n
The tape backup market is still going strong. For high-end
\nservers in large enterprises, the Digital Linear Tape (DLT) is
\nthe choice. DLT technology was first developed by Digital
\nEquipment Corporation, which is now owned by Quantum. It provides
\nnot only larger storage capacity but also faster access time.
\nWhile the DAT40x6 can transfer data at the rate of 6 MB\/s (with
\n2:1 hardware compression) and can store up to 40 GB per tape
\ncartridge (also with 2:1 hardware compression), HP's high-end DLT
\nAutoloader 818 has a native transfer rate of 6 MB per second and
\noffers a total of up to 320 GB of backup storage capacity.<\/p>\n
Incidentally, if you happen to lose your mission-critical data
\ndespite all the backup systems that you have put in place, there
\nmay still be hope to get it back. DisTek (www.distek.com) is a
\nU.S.-based company that can go to the physical level of your hard
\ndisk and retrieve it. DisTek claims a 95 percent success rate,
\nwhich is really impressive. You will have to weigh the value of
\nyour lost data against the cost of retrieving it, of course.<\/p>",
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