RE: backups of large IFS to tape

Actually using Image Catalogs are like using DVD optical media.

Kind of cool, but size somewhat limited. I think each virtual optical can be up to 16gb.

Not sure if that has increased.

The RDX thing is cool as well, but definitely requires the new machine.

Apparently the USB ports on the newer boxes will allow standard memory sticks to be used too :-)

Regards,
Richard Schoen
RJS Software Systems Inc.
Where Information Meets Innovation
Document Management, Workflow, Report Delivery, Forms and Business Intelligence
Email: richard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Web Site: http://www.rjssoftware.com
Tel: (952) 736-5800
Fax: (952) 736-5801
Toll Free: (888) RJSSOFT

------------------------------

message: 7
date: Tue, 15 Jul 2014 17:59:59 -0400
from: John Yeung <gallium.arsenide@xxxxxxxxx>
subject: Re: backups of large IFS to tape

On Tue, Jul 15, 2014 at 5:21 PM, Richard Schoen <richard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I wonder if using Image Catalogs might work. Then you would be
backing up a blob instead of a bunch of small files.

I don't know anything about image catalogs, but from the sound of it,
this would be similar in principle to tar or other archiving formats.
Unix folks are of course familiar with tar, which presumably was
created for exactly this use (it means "Tape ARchive" after all). But
if you can trade some CPU time and temporary disk space for tape I/O
time and tape space, you can use a more modern compressed archive
format, like .zip or .7z.

I also like Nathan's idea of copying only new or changed files, which
is one of the main strategies used by dedicated backup software on
various platforms.

John Y.