RE: Disk solution for the small Oracle shop....shared disk space options for Linux servers???

>>you said yourself you were already considering going to tape from this disk???
I did. One day we hope pull from the disk backup system just critical or monthly centralized backups pices.

>>also send copies off site (even small shops should be doing this as a minimal DR strategy)
Agreed.

>> I'm not sure about the claim that it breaks/fails often
>> we don't see that and we're probably running 1000s of backups each day.
Ask your SA's not if, but "how often" they have a tape IO error that either automatically completes that part of backup again, or must re-run the entire backup.

>>Perhaps you just had an incompetent SA supporting your system, or you had bad hardware?
I have worked with many SA's in multi million dollar shops. The all could not have been incompetent. And they all have the same complaints, expectations, and realities about tape.

>> I'm pretty sure tape is more reliable than a disk drive.
Your going have a hard time finding support for that claim.

Again, I have used and implemented Oracle-RMAN-MML tape backups. They work, but are hardly hassle free (but what is hassle free, I know). We have not even talked about the tape speed issue and the fact that a tape subsystem becomes a whole new animal the must be admin'ed, monitored, tuned, and verified.

Trying to set up Enterprise class tape backups system with a small biggest and small staff if very hard and unwise. For when it (unknowingly) fails, we would be in deep trouble.

Tape is fine, but doesn't reduce our complexity, but rather adds to it.

Chris

-----Original Message-----
From: Allen, Brandon [mailto:Brandon.Allen_at_OneNeck.com] Sent: Tue 8/9/2005 1:13 PM
To: Marquez, Chris; oracle-l_at_freelists.org Subject: RE: Disk solution for the small Oracle shop....shared disk space options for Linux servers???  

Okay, but you said yourself you were already considering going to tape from this disk??? I'm certainly not a tape admin expert - we have our own SAs here as well since we have a huge tape library backing up several servers, but I'd imagine there are some cheap, simple ways of implementing tape as well - e.g. a locally attached single tape drive. I'm not sure about the claim that it breaks/fails often - we don't see that and we're probably running 1000s of backups each day. Perhaps you just had an incompetent SA supporting your system, or you had bad hardware? I'm pretty sure tape is more reliable than a disk drive. With tape, you can (and should) also send copies off site (even small shops should be doing this as a minimal DR strategy) and you can save 7-year archives for tax/legal purposes.  

-----Original Message-----
From: Marquez, Chris [mailto:cmarquez_at_collegeboard.org] Sent: Tuesday, August 09, 2005 9:52 AM
To: Allen, Brandon; oracle-l_at_freelists.org Subject: RE: Disk solution for the small Oracle shop....shared disk space options for Linux servers???

"Tape"
Is expensive.
Is a hassle...admin intensive.
Breaks and fails often.
Not simple to add to existing non TAPE environment. Needs additional software and license.
Requires client "agents" (for Oracle).
Would require direct connection to each server, additional tapes servers, or additional network.

I have used tape for big clients very successfully in the past but often didn't go a week without some level of administrative time (fixing-redoing). Even had dedicated SA support for the tape subsystem.

Thanks, but no thanks on tape.

Chris

-----Original Message-----
From: Allen, Brandon [ mailto:Brandon.Allen_at_OneNeck.com] Sent: Tue 8/9/2005 12:22 PM
To: Marquez, Chris; oracle-l_at_freelists.org Subject: RE: Disk solution for the small Oracle shop....shared disk space options for Linux servers???

Why not just backup straight to tape and then it sounds like you won't need that disk space at all?

-----Original Message-----
From: oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org [ mailto:oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org]On Behalf Of Marquez, Chris Sent: Tuesday, August 09, 2005 8:46 AM
To: oracle-l_at_freelists.org
Subject: Disk solution for the small Oracle shop....shared disk space options for Linux servers???

What we want to do/do not to with the space;

• Share the disk space among 4 db servers
• Will *NOT* put Oracle datafiles on this space
• Put RMAN backups on this space
• Maybe have 2nd ARCH DEST on this space
• Maybe backup to tape from this space

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