Here's my two cents,

If I were to set up my own (and I have) I'd use an old computer with a de=
cent=20
hard drive (80-120 GB for your situation mirroring would be a 'second=20
backup'), have to allow room to grow), and do that backup at night for=20
fastest throughput (gigabit?) as compared to any tape speeds.  Then, duri=
ng=20
the day, when you can pay attention, backup the second computer, the 'thi=
rd=20
backup'.  No hurry, taking speed of the drive out of the equation of cost=
,=20
leaving size, and here you can get more creative now that your not backin=
g up=20
a production box and use any OS and a multitude of choices for long term=20
storage..  still recommend at least a 60/120 gig tape drive. =20

Large SANs have a similar mechanism called a 'flash' backup .  Backup a 2=
 TB=20
database in 30 seconds to a storage area, then backup the secondary stora=
ge.

With the exception of the cost of the basic hardware (spare pc, two HD, a=
nd=20
long term storage solution), you can pretty much spend as much or as litt=
le=20
as you want.  The secondary and tertiary backups allow you to be a little=
=20
sloppier ("oops, forgot to change the travan today, at least I have it on=
 the=20
backup server") or as high end as you want ("The DLT storage library need=
s=20
another 70 200GB tapes barcoded and loaded for tonights 14 TB backup").


anthony


  On Thursday 01 May 2003 12:17 pm, Liberty Young thought they were smart=
 and=20
wrote:
> Working for a small business, what would you all out there recommend fo=
r
> a backup solution? I'm leaning toward Tape backups, but the solution
> needs to hit these things:
>
> 1) Be easy enough for somebody at the end of the day to just pop out a
> tape, pop it in, and walk away.
>
>
> 2) modestly priced.
>
> 3) Enough Linux support already there so i can get it working within a
> weekend.
>
> With these in mind, what Tape Drives should I buy? I don't have a SCSI
> capable Server yet, but i believe that could be fixed with a pci card.
> Any suggestions for one of those?
>
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--=20

anthony