Free methods of copying to tape?

[kevinnaughton]

We need to copy our Veeam backups to tape for a grandfather-father-son retention as well as long term archival. I've searched and found plenty of people doing so using their legacy backup softare. This is for a new office with no pre-existing backup. Is it possible to set something up using Windows Server backup? Are there any exising scripts for doing so?

We'll be performing forward incrementals with weekly synthetic fulls, copying to tape each day and then sending offsite. Would like to automate this to copy the jobs to tape as soon as the B2D job completes.

Thanks!

[jeancharles]

Hello,

Sorry no luck for the free part, but I buy for my clients a Symantec BackupExec Server without any options, just to D2T and manage tapes and so.

If ever someone finds something, we'll see if you have more luck!

[deduplicat3d]

Nothing is free... you are going to pay for the tapes and the tape drive anyways. Just include Backup Exec as part of that cost.

[J1mbo]

What data volumes are we talking here?

[kevinnaughton]

It's just under 1 TB for the fulls going to LTO4, so should fit on a single tape.

[J1mbo]

Why not use USB drives instead? Think how much the maintenance alone is costing you on that LTO hardware...

[dellock6]

Totally agree. Or you can also check for RDX technology from Imation, used them some times,basically it's a "tape drive" made with removable disks, and the operating systems sees them as disks, so you can send Veeam backups directly to it.

[tsightler]

I don't know of anything completely free, but there are some very low cost solutions, stuff like Z-DATdump is <$100 US and I've been told that it's no frills and gets the job done. I don't think it supports changers though, just standalone tape devices.

A lot of the LTO5 devices also provide a free tool to make a tape appears as a regular disk drive and you can just use simple file copy tools using LTFS (Linear Tape File System). I've never used this method but a client told me it works fine for their requirements. Here's a link to the HP version.

[dellock6]

I've also seen many tape-drive vendors giving a lite version of their software in bundle with the unit. Limited on features, but for sure with the only one we need, that is the saving from disk to tape.

[kevinnaughton]

Thanks for all the suggestions. We just bit the bullet and bought a copy of BackupExec. Hard drives are not an option. Must be archived to tape for compliance reasons (plus I wouldn't archive to hard drive anyway, they break when you drop them).

Looked at Z-DATdump and LTO-5. Z-DATdump was a little too no frills. LTO-5 would have been perfect, but the cost of BE was cheaper than the jump from LTO-4 to 5. Unfortunately, no light version with the tape drive.

[mike143]

We ended up with the following: Quantum LTO-5 HH tape drive, Tabletop Kit, SAS HBA Bundle, 6Gb/s SAS, Includes data cartridge, cleaning cartridge,SFF8088 to SFF8088 SAS cable, LSI PCI express SAS HBA, Symantec Backup Exec 2010 QuickStart Software, worldwide power cords and product documentation.

Symantec Backup Exec 2010 QuickStart works just fine for copying Veeam files to tape.

If you went LTO-5 you also have the option of utilizing Linear Tape File System: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_Tape_File_System

[lcaller]

We've just started using Urainium Pro Tape to do this. Not free but $150 and it's pretty solid.

[dellock6]

Happy about your choice, they are from Italy like me and they have a smart software indeed