Tape backup

[Khalil]

Is Tape backup still widely used and is it a reliable method?
I do not use it, but I have a few friends who are business owners who bought "servers" with backup drives in them but they are always complaining how they keep failing.

One of them called me today to ask me for help with his Iomega tape drive. It appears that the people who sold his HP "server" no longer wish to give him support even though it is still under their "warranty".

The Iomega website has little to nothing as far as FAQ and customer support for the tape drives.

[glc]

There is still no better alternative to tape for a server backup solution that can run unattended and is easy for storing media offsite. I don't recall any tape drive made by Iomega that's suitable for a modern server backup though.

[Khalil]

There is still no better alternative to tape for a server backup solution that can run unattended and is easy for storing media offsite. I don't recall any tape drive made by Iomega that's suitable for a modern server backup though.
How do you feel about this sort of set up.
A second smaller server (PC) hooked up to the main server through vpn using a program like acronis to back up at a different location.
Would that not be more ideal?

[brianb]

For backing up servers, a good tape drive is really the best way to go. From my experience, the smaller drives like what Iomega usually sold do wear out quickly if you run full backups every night. (I wore out several smaller drives in outside offices with small file server and only 3-5 workstations.) A drive made for business use, like an Exabyte VXA drive for example, will last and is very reliable. The best thing is tape backups are fully automated and the software will usually email you a report so each day so you know that your backups are working as they should Also, it is best to rotate multiple tapes should a tape or server fail while the backup is running. You can easily archive tapes monthly/quarterly should you want the ability to go back and look at data from a previous point.



BrianB