Backup and Tape device answers

[Tim Jones]

Not BRU Server suppoprt forum, but ...

Not BRU Server suppoprt forum, but ...

Hi Marcus,

I try to keep the BRU side of this off the forums (I don't want to usurp the forums for BRU-specific communications), so I'll send a private note to respond directly to your questions.

However, I would like to share with the forum that we do require a support contract after the free 30 days of support that is included with your purchase. Every company out there does. But, I believe that you'll discover our support and maintenance contract is much more affordable and inclusive than anyone else - including Retrospect and PressStore.

Also, the 2.0 release has a huge number of usability and bug fixes over 1.2.0 and we continue to listen to user reports about issues and usability and even the 2.0 release has been updated based on that feedback and is currently at level 2.0.2.

 

[Tim Jones]

More on the BRU PE Cataloging

More on the BRU PE Cataloging

BRU PE will keep a list of the files in each backup, and you can restore individual ones. I don't think this is searchable, but it's possible that it's something that i overlooked.

we archive by project, so we just keep a simple spreadsheet of what projects are on what tapes.

Hi all,

Not sure how I missed all of these posts, but I'll try to catch up.

To make BRU PE's cataloging as useful as possible, we've included a document in the product DMG that fully outlines how the data is stored on the system disk. This is to allow you to extend the facilities provided within the software to use any other management tool you prefer.

The files are all simply plain text, so there is no special processing that needs to be done other than reading them, but the catalog info doc will further explain.

As to the way the catalogs are handled on your system disk and on the tapes, we write the catalog to both your system and to the tape after the archive is completed. Therefore, you have two copies of the file information for each archive set written.

To parse your archives, we display the information in Finder-like list and YES, you can search the information - even across multiple archives or multiple tapes. That's what the "Search" button is for on the Restore panel. :wink:

Hopefully, that clears that up :smile:

 

[Tim Jones]

Apple OS X and Tape Device Drivers

Apple OS X and Tape Device Drivers

I'm hooking up the HP 1760 to a Mac Pro octocore and can't find mac os drivers anywhere.

Help :blush:

I know others have answered, but let me explain further -

The Apple folks decided that maintaining support for the myriad tape and library devices was beyond the scope of what they wanted to do in the OS, so they left it up to the software vendors to implement their own device support layer.

Within BRU, we implemented the device I/O layer based upon the T10 specifications for Type 1 and Type 8 devices (tape drives and medium changers). Because of this, all BRU products support all tape device types and all interconnect layers (SCSI, SAS, Fibre-Channel, SATA, USB, and Firewire) right out of the box. In fact, because of the way Apple provides the SCSI access layer, the actual code used in BRU has not been modified since 10.2.5 (circa 2002) and is still correct on 10.6.3.

Therefore, if you're using a BRU product, you simply attach your drive or library and start archiving - and you don't need to worry about OS updates (except 10.4.9 and 10.4.10, but that's a different story). It really is that easy.

 

[Tim Jones]

I have an HP storage server with 12TB of storage, a fw800 card in it and an LTO-4 tape library. I want to back up red drives to it, and burn them off to tape. What's the best software to do the backup to tape? ntbackup? What's most commonly used?

Thanks,
Paul

Of course, my answer would be BRU PE :smile:, but you appear to be asking for Windows. In that case, NTBACKUP will work, but we recommend NovaStor's Novaback to get the best performance out of your LTO drive on a Windows system.

As for a library, NTBACKUP won't get it done and I'm not sure what Novaback supports. You may need to consider a more expensive package. Check out Novastor's site for specifics.

 

[Jörgen Persson]

Hi, Tim. I'm looking for a good backup and archive solution for Red and XDCAM. I tried the BRU PE demo and it seems to be the right application for me, except for one thing - restoring multiple files from a list.

Are there any plans to support a "pull list" feature in Bru PE?
A (video-) tapeless project with a high shooting ratio stored on LTO4 needs a lot of disk space (and time) to restore the raw files for an edit otherwise. With a pull list feature you would only restore the files that are used in the final cut.

The list could be anything from an EDL with clip comments to a plain text document with the original file paths derived from an XML.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Tim Jones]

Pull List restores

Pull List restores

Hi, Tim. I'm looking for a good backup and archive solution for Red and XDCAM. I tried the BRU PE demo and it seems to be the right application for me, except for one thing - restoring multiple files from a list.

[EDIT] I totally misread your original note above... see my reply below...

Are there any plans to support a "pull list" feature in Bru PE?
A (video-) tapeless project with a high shooting ratio stored on LTO4 needs a lot of disk space (and time) to restore the raw files for an edit otherwise. With a pull list feature you would only restore the files that are used in the final cut.

The list could be anything from an EDL with clip comments to a plain text document with the original file paths derived from an XML.

While XML isn't on the list (unless we can get some standardized examples), we are adding EDL and plain text lists to the restore panel for BRU PE 3.0. You'll be able to drag and drop an EDL or text file and PE will parse the contents and match files in your archive(s) and add them to the restore selection. In fact, if you have an example EDL or two from your workflow, we'd love to see them (send a private note) to make sure that we haven't missed anthing.

Tim

 

[bryanpapierski]

just want to archive footage

just want to archive footage

what would be a good system to archive the footage i shoot.. 20/30tb a year? 1/2 tb at a time?

 

[Rick Allen]

Does the Dell POWERVAULT 110T work in a mac environment. A buddy has a couple that he's getting rid of.

 

[Tim Jones]

Depends on your system, but ...

Depends on your system, but ...

what would be a good system to archive the footage i shoot.. 20/30tb a year? 1/2 tb at a time?

LTO-4 will give you long life and a standard format. We offer a bundle of LTO 4, SAS HBA, Cables, Media, Cleaning cart and the BRU PE software. Plus we've got a special offer for REDUser forum members that includes extra media as part of the order.

 

[Tim Jones]

Maybe, maybe not.

Maybe, maybe not.

Does the Dell POWERVAULT 110T work in a mac environment. A buddy has a couple that he's getting rid of.

We have customers using the PowerVault 110T with BRU Server and BRU PE on OS X with success and others who have had nothing but trouble.

I'd recommend that you ask him to loan you one and then try it with BRU PE and see what results you can achieve. It's been one of those "It Works" or "It Fails" devices immediately upon initial test, so it would be very easy to find out where his units stand in that mix. Of course, we recommend ATTO SCSI.

 

[Andrae Palmer]

While XML isn't on the list (unless we can get some standardized examples), we are adding EDL and plain text lists to the restore panel for BRU PE 3.0. You'll be able to drag and drop an EDL or text file and PE will parse the contents and match files in your archive(s) and add them to the restore selection. In fact, if you have an example EDL or two from your workflow, we'd love to see them (send a private note) to make sure that we haven't missed anthing.

Tim

Pretty neat EDL feature Tim. I just got the HP 1840, ATTO R380 and finally a SAS cable (don't forget the SAS cable guys... when ordering). I tried BRU Server last night and will play around with it for another week before giving BRU PE a try. Wish I had installed BRU PE demo first but the email took a long while to arrive. BRU PE seems like what I need... especially with this very cool EDL feature.

Tim do you guys have any training videos on Youtube or anywhere else? I did go through the admin guide for BRU Server but I sure do love a good training video.

 

[Tim Jones]

Pretty neat EDL feature Tim. I just got the HP 1840, ATTO R380 and finally a SAS cable (don't forget the SAS cable guys... when ordering).

And that's EXACTLY why we started selling the bundles :wink:.

I tried BRU Server last night and will play around with it for another week before giving BRU PE a try. Wish I had installed BRU PE demo first but the email took a long while to arrive. BRU PE seems like what I need... especially with this very cool EDL feature.

I suspect that BRU Server will be more than what you're looking for as it's aimed at client-server network operations. It will work with a standalone system, but it is aimed at IT-savvy folks.

Tim do you guys have any training videos on Youtube or anywhere else? I did go through the admin guide for BRU Server but I sure do love a good training video.

That's something that we're working towards for both products. Unfortunately, the guy that would be responsible for the production (me ) is swamped with business stuff right now.

 

[Jörgen Persson]

I just ordered PRU PE, an LTO4 drive and an ATTO H380 (and the cable of course). Can't wait to backup to something more stable than harddrives :001_cool:

Tim, you mentioned the EDL feature as being part of an upcoming v3.0.
Since BRU PE is at v2.0.1, when do you expect to release the 3.0 version?

I'll send you some Avid generated EDLs later this week for RED and XDCAM workflows.

 

[Tim Jones]

I just ordered PRU PE, an LTO4 drive and an ATTO H380 (and the cable of course). Can't wait to backup to something more stable than harddrives :001_cool:

Thanks!

Tim, you mentioned the EDL feature as being part of an upcoming v3.0. Since BRU PE is at v2.0.1, when do you expect to release the 3.0 version?

We're trying to put the wraps on things for first BETAs next week.

I'll send you some Avid generated EDLs later this week for RED and XDCAM workflows.

That would be outstanding.

Tim

 

[Jeremy Neish]

We've been using BRU-PE for probably about a year now. And it's okay. I used Retrospect for years, but it got increasingly unstable, and the new version of Retrospect brings our entire server to it's knees.

The good about BRU:
Fairly stable: Only had one major crash, we were doing our first (and so far only) large multi-tape backup of a 6TB partition and after days of putting in tape after tape after tape, (13 800GB tapes in fact, which was far too many for the size of the archive), it froze. To this day I don't know if the tapes are good, or if I should try again and re-use all the tapes. All of our single tape archives have worked great. That being said, just installing Retrospect on the machine seems to wreak all sorts of stability and speed problems, so big plus for BRU.

Speed: Though I haven't done any speed tests, BRU archives go about as fast as I'd expect.

Long term viability: As I understand it, if TOLIS goes out of business, the source code of their programs will become open, so it's theoretically obsolescence proof.

The bad:
The UI feels very un-Mac like. Like forcing you to go through "Volumes" to get to your drives is too UNIXy, ugly non-standard font choices (Courier = yuk) , icons throughout the program are windows-like and fugly (Seriously, dithered 8 color icons, how very windows 3.1 of them). And just a generally confusing UI.

Searching and navigating through archives is slow and clunky.

And most importantly, as far as I can tell, there's no way to exclude files based on metadata, like label color. This is a feature I've used extensively in Retrospect for (nearly) decades, just tag unimportant files or folders I don't want backed up Red and they aren't backed up.

30 day support is lame for a fairly pricy program. I realize this is becoming more common, but I hate, it and always look for alternatives that include support, sadly there aren't any viable alternatives. I'm one who very rarely resorts to calling support, but I like to know that I can without going back to the powers that be for more money.

Far too infrequent updates. I don't think we've seen a single update since we bought it. And trust me there's plenty that needs fixing or improving upon.

So certainly function-over-form with this app, which is the proper priority for an app like this, but that's why I love Apple so much, they can do both very well.

To an earlier question about cataloging your archives. In addition to the built in text only cataloging in BRU, I drop archives into CDFinder (perfect example of both form and function - and speed, and I love the thumbnails of stills and videos). And for quick reference anywhere in the world and just in case I lose both of my other catalogs, I keep a simple Google Docs spreadsheet summary of what projects are on a given tape, and the tape's physical location.

 

[Jeremy Neish]

I was just Restoring some files in BRU, and I decided I was a bit too harsh with regards to the UI. Yes, the icons are ugly, especially the folder icons, and I hate courier with a passion.. I was a bit harsh saying it's very un-Mac like. I'll change that to, some elements are rather un-Mac like, other parts look fine. The interface could certainly use some re-organizing though.

 

[Tim Jones]

What about that multi-tape failure?

What about that multi-tape failure?

Jeremy,

I'd really like to hear more about that multi-tape archive failure that you mentioned. I couldn't find a support or bug ticket on it and we always get VERY concerned when we hear of that sort of error or crash.

Also, all of the data on the tapes is there and can be recovered, it's just that the UI doesn't currently know about it.

(BTW - it's Monaco, not Courier :devil

 

[James Press]

Hi TIm,

We've got a Quantum Scalar 50 with 2 drives and LTO4 controlled by PresStor. We are a relatively small, self-funded charity with a film production team of essentially 3 (we do all the filming, editing and archiving). We're about to install a 10TB SAN and are looking at the pros and cons of XSAN and our existing PresStor system, and (the much more expensive) StorNext. It's not really a fair question I know, but do you have any off-the-cuff feelings about StorNext?

Cheers,

James

 

[Tim Jones]

The devil is in the details

The devil is in the details

Hi James,

I've worked with ADIC's StorNext since the way-back days and Xsan since Apple gave us the first developer builds. Something that many folks don't realize is that Xsan is just StorNext with Apple's mods applied. Both are great solutions, but I would ask a few questions before choosing either. Do you really need SAN management or would simpler shared storage meet your needs. Do you need RealTime I/O support, or is the storage system simply used for storing data? Are you going to have 10 editors accessing 4K-based raw streams directly from the array, or is the file I/O during editing limited to the local system with only the finished and mid-line work stored on the array? As for StorNext vs. Xsan, do you have lots of non-Apple systems that will be accessing the data? Xsan is a bit more limited in that vein than StorNext. Finally, is your IT team ready to take on the task of getting StorNext completely set, or does the Apple-esque design of the Xsan management tools fit your team's work model better?

:coolgleamA: One note - if you do go with Xsan, you can integrate other platforms (Sun, Linux, HP-UX, etc) using ADIC's StorNext FX client software.

Sorry that there's not a real answer in all of that, but there are a lot of variables that must be weighed before committing to one solution over the other.

As for PresSTORE's support of either, I'm definitely not the right guy :devil: ...

 

[bryanpapierski]

that looks good, now i have to wait on $$$. can u email me if any specials come up? ps.what do the tapes run $-wise...