Hi,

I could use some advice on backup options.  I have a 4yr old Data Domain that 
has worked perfectly, but it is totally filled (actually overfilled) and pricey 
to maintain.  It is located at the remote site connected to my primary site by 
fiber and I just NFS mount it to my backup server.  A full backup is around 
23TB and my backup set of fulls and incrementals around 90TB.  My data growth 
has been around 20% a year, but if the school district decides to move to 
student portfolios, it will easily double and maybe triple in a few years.  I 
am not a 7x24 shop so for all my applications and databases, I just dump the 
files at night and back them up.  I generate about 600GB of long term archive 
data a year that goes to LTO3 tape.  The primary purpose is for disaster 
recovery although we do about 1 - 2 file restores a month.  90% of the data in 
on an EMC VNX that I backup via NDMP.  So far I am safely within my backup 
window, but that may change if I double or triple the data.  Opti
 ons I am looking at are:

1. Plain disk with an nfs server on it, no dedup.  This is definitely the least 
expensive option and can grow cheaply to handle my worst case data growth

2. Data Domain - very pricey as it is about 5x cost of option #1 for about the 
same logical capacity. At worst case data growth I will need another one or 
another forklift upgrade.

3. Data Domain used -  does not come with software support, and about 1.5x cost 
of #1.  At worst case data growth I will need another one or another forklift 
upgrade.  I am concerned about lack of software support.

4. A ZFS system with dedup.  About 2x the cost of #1, and from what I hear the 
dedup is not good for this application (e.g. backup software kind of breaks 
dedup on ZFS) so I am assuming minimal dedup savings.  This can grow to handle 
worst case data growth.

5. 4 Drive, 48 slot LTO5 library.  Same cost as #1 and by swapping tapes once a 
week or every other week I can handle worst case data growth,

6. Exagrid - I suspect this will be the same cost as the Data domain

Any other options I should be looking at?  What would you do in my case?

I appreciate and look forward to your responses.

cheers,

ski

---
"When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it
 connected to the entire universe"            John Muir

Chris "Ski" Kacoroski, Unix Admin
206-501-9803, ski98033 on IRC and most IM services

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