Backup to Tape - recommendations

[glennda]

Looking for some suggestions on Backup to Tape software (nobody mention Backup Exec 2012 as its terrible).

 

Got a few clients who backup using Veeam to disk and we are looking to transfer these backups to tape once a week.

 

What is the best software out there as previously we used Backup Exec but I hate 2012 and think its the biggest pile of rubbish to come out of them, In my opinion Symantec have done a Microsoft and taken a good product and made it terrible (i.e xp and vista, 11d to 2012).

 

What do people think?

[gshaw]

I use 2010 on our Veeam server, have you got access to previous versions?

[Tallwood_6]

ARCserve? You can downgrade from backup exec 2012 to 2010 I believe.

[john]

CA Arcserve here and for my mini-rants over its tape choices on FB the other day, when I remove my lazyness (of just wanting it to self-feed all 16 tapes till they are all full and then rinse and repeat) it is working very well so far and i'm hoping this weekend will complete the first off-site tape backup we have had since we re-opened (we use VSS snapshots lots for normal recoverys off our SANs and other systems so this is off-site for DR)

[kmount]

I tolerate BE 2010 R3 with Veeam because it's a simple file dump, does the job but arguably anything else could too.

[glennda]

I did look at arcserve d2d as it's configurable via management platform. but it didn't support tape so I guess there is another version.

 

problem with backup exec downgrade is we are suggesting things to clients and saying buy 2012 and downgrade Just so I like the interface better isn't very professional.

[SYNACK]

ArcServe is also a nightmare if you get on its bad side, forgetting tapes and generally failing at its assigned tasks.

 

DPM does tape but I have no idea how well or how it would integrate, free trial download though so you could test it.

Microsoft System Center 2012 | Cloud & Datacenter Management

[jamesfed]

We do monthly backups to tape using DPM 2012 - it does the job very well and is supplemented with 3x daily backups to hard drive (in the DPM server).

 

Thanks to EES the cost is VERY cheap and it can backup pretty much anything Microsoft based (Bare metal/Hyper-V VMs, drives/shares).

[Tallwood_6]

I did look at arcserve d2d as it's configurable via management platform. but it didn't support tape so I guess there is another version.

 

problem with backup exec downgrade is we are suggesting things to clients and saying buy 2012 and downgrade Just so I like the interface better isn't very professional.

 

If your not using it after initial setup then what's up with 2012 then, it's arguably much easier to use for people not familiar with previous versions.

[glennda]

We do monthly backups to tape using DPM 2012 - it does the job very well and is supplemented with 3x daily backups to hard drive (in the DPM server).

 

Thanks to EES the cost is VERY cheap and it can backup pretty much anything Microsoft based (Bare metal/Hyper-V VMs, drives/shares).

 

Thanks - will look at DPM, These clients are not education so cost will be normal price

[glennda]

If your not using it after initial setup then what's up with 2012 then, it's arguably much easier to use for people not familiar with previous versions.

 

the interface is terrible

[bossman]

Been using BE version 12.5 for a little over 2 years in a D2D2T scenario, works very well using windows Diskbox 2003R2 in conjuction with HP LT04 multitape loader 16 tapes including cleaning tape.

 

256 Bit encryption for offsite storage of tapes.

 

Only trouble I have had is that of a tape getting stuck, had to completely strip down the autoloader and then rebuild it re-install the tapes one by one in order (had all the tapes marked up prior, comes in very handy) then re-index the tapes using BE, took 16 hours all told but all back and working now and I know quite a lot more about BE and autoloaders hehe!

 

If I had the money it would be this: http://www.quorumsoft.com/ does everything and well.

Edited December 2, 2012 by bossman

[Bruce123]

Looking for some suggestions on Backup to Tape software (nobody mention Backup Exec 2012 as its terrible).

 

Got a few clients who backup using Veeam to disk and we are looking to transfer these backups to tape once a week.

 

What is the best software out there as previously we used Backup Exec but I hate 2012 and think its the biggest pile of rubbish to come out of them, In my opinion Symantec have done a Microsoft and taken a good product and made it terrible (i.e xp and vista, 11d to 2012).

 

What do people think?

 

Speaking personally, if you can find a way to copy the backup files to USB HDD reliably, then I wouldn't bother with tape.

 

Think of it this way - if your tape drive located in your server room and there is a small fire there and your tape drive is destroyed you can't even begin to think about recovering data until you get hold of a new compatable tape drive/SAS cable & card and connect it to a server.

 

If your weekly backups are on USB drive (off-site) then you can plug them into any PC/laptop to recover the files.

 

Again, just my opinion.

 

Bruce.

[glennda]

the one I'm currently working on isn't just to tape. it's veeam backup to iscsi nas along with veeam replicated to a secondary site (hourly) the tape backup is for compliance reasons due to the industry they are in and will be transferring the data for tapes (encrypted)