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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

LTO backup

D

Debashish

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I just want to know how to backup LTO through BRU PE software as i am loading it is not loading. What is the meaning of archiving here ? If anyone helps me it will be a great help for me. I am having Tandberg T24 storage device and operating system MAC, software BRU PE.
 
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Hi Debashish, not enough information here. As this is a vendor specific issue that may be related to you environment, I'd suggest you contact TOLISGROUP Support or PM Tim Jones on this forum.

BRU-PE works great for me.

Add some more infor with respect of your workflow and operation and set up.. maybe can assist with some ideas.
w
HK
 
BRU PE works well with LTO 4. Make sure the drive is up and running and then start BRU PE. You can check it is seen in the backup section or in the setup/tools in advanced view. If it still doesn't work check it can be seen in the OS X profiler. If you still have problems then suspect the drive or contact TOLIS Support
 
What error are you seeing?

What error are you seeing?

Debashish said:
I just want to know how to backup LTO through BRU PE software as i am loading it is not loading. What is the meaning of archiving here ? If anyone helps me it will be a great help for me. I am having Tandberg T24 storage device and operating system MAC, software BRU PE.
Click to expand...

Not a very complete description of what you are running into here. Have you opened a support ticket with our support team?

As Gifford indicates, what does the system profiler say about the attached devices? Is the LTO-4 drive listed under SAS or Parallel SCSI devices?

What do you see in a terminal if you execute "tapectl display"?

We'll be pleased to help you with your problem if you can give us more details than simply that it does not appear to be working.

Tim
 
BRU and Backwards Compatibility.

BRU and Backwards Compatibility.

Hi Michael,

Yes, BRU's format is proprietary - that's what provides our more robust recovery capabilities. However, unlike Retrospect, every new version of BRU (and all BRU family members) are fully backwards compatible. In fact, we just had a user with 1/4" (QIC 150) tapes from the Amiga Newtek system in 1986/7 (BRU 6 or thereabout) restore his data onto a Linux system using BRU 17.1. Those archives are 23 years old!

Not only is BRU backwards compatible with older archives, but we will also restore to a completely different platform (something ELSE Retrospect won't do :001_tt2:).

Tim
 
Tim Jones said:
Hi Michael,

Yes, BRU's format is proprietary - that's what provides our more robust recovery capabilities.
Click to expand...

Hi Tim

Forgive my ignorance but why is proprietary more robust...

I would love the ability to write to LTO4 with a format that can be read simply in any LTO4 (or 5) drive.. (an open source reader would be great)

BRU is looking good but I have about 40-50 LTO4 tapes that need redone so I want to make sure my next choice is the correct one..

kind regards

Michael L
 
BRU - archival for the long haul.

BRU - archival for the long haul.

First, let me warn that this is more "commercial" than I like to be in these forums, but I feel it's important to get the answer out there.

Michael Lindsay said:
Hi Tim

Forgive my ignorance but why is proprietary more robust...
Click to expand...
Simply because the formats like tar and cpio only record the bare minimum in the way of file info and there's no way - short of restoring the data - to determine if an archive is any good. For a serious look at this, we have a comparison white paper that will give you a bit more insight into why we do what we do with BRU.

I would love the ability to write to LTO4 with a format that can be read simply in any LTO4 (or 5) drive.. (an open source reader would be great)

BRU is looking good but I have about 40-50 LTO4 tapes that need redone so I want to make sure my next choice is the correct one..
Click to expand...
While not open source, BRU is available on almost every platform out there and our archives are compatible across all of them. This means an archive created with BRU on OS X today is recoverable on Solaris next month or in 5 years. Or an archive from Linux is recoverable on OS X - an so on.

As for "technology creep", BRU PE includes a license for the TOLIS Tape Tools product. TTT includes a mechanism that will allow you to copy or migrate your archives intact from one technology type to another. This means that as you move from LTO-4 to LTO-7, you can migrate your old archives from the older technology to the new - no more antiquated drives hanging around - knowing that you'll still be able to recover the data contained within them. Or, move your AIT-3 archives to LTO or your LTO-6 to whatever the new storage device is in 2025. And, since we are totally committed to full backward compatibility between BRU versions, the BRU that you can get in 10 or 20 years will still restore archives that you make today (see my note about the Amiga tapes above as a proof point).

Also, BRU is not a tape-only solution. We'll happily store archives onto disk or into the "cloud". This is because BRU is completely device independent and we do not have the driver and device lock that so many other backup tools bring with them. This is also why BRU works with all tape drive and library types on OS X - SCSI, SAS, Fibre-Channel, iSCSI, Firewire, and USB (even SATA or ATAPI if you find a tape device that uses those interfaces) - with no special device drivers. It's also why we have not changed the code in BRU that writes to the tape devices since 10.2.5 and everything still works through 10.6.1 and drives LTO-4 tapes at 120MB/sec.

While BRU is proprietary, it's been around for 25 years and we plan on being around for many, many more. Furthermore, if you are a NARAS member, you'll have access to BRU technology into the future even if TOLIS Group ceases to exist because we're providing source in escrow that will allow NARAS members to gain access to the actual code and continue moving forward in the case of a catastrophe within TOLIS Group. We are also in communication with the SCL and SMPTE groups to offer a similar escrow option.

For private companies, we will also provide escrow via your legal representation so long as you maintain the fees required for the escrow maintenance.

TOLIS Group and BRU exist for one purpose - to protect data long-term. Our archives have been recoverable for over 20 years by the current version and will continue to be so for as long as BRU exists (or until 2012 if you subscribe to the doomsday theory :huh: - uh, that's meant to be a joke...).

Tim
 
Don't erase, just overwrite :-)

Don't erase, just overwrite :-)

Michael Lindsay said:
Hi Tim

Thanks allot for your input.

Sorry one more advice question..

If I buy your software this week can I reuse once used LTO4 tapes as I don't really want to buy 40x lto4 tapes just to move away from retrospect.

If yes what is the best way to erase?

thanks again

Michael
Click to expand...

All you need to do is tell BRU PE to overwrite and you can reuse all of them.

We do provide a way to erase the tapes in the Setup/Tools panel, but that's just a waste of tape life since the first time BRU PE overwrites the tape, the Retrospect data is toast.

Tim
 
Hi Tim-
I'm looking into LTO solutions, but having never use one before I'm wondering whether or not tapes can be written to sequentially (100GB this week, 400GB next month, etc.) or if it's a one time deal, and then erase and re-write. Thanks for being so generous with your knowledge.
Peace,

-Harry
 
Michael Lindsay said:
Thanks again

But does the above mean that reusing the tape even once is a slight problem?

thanks

Michael (really regretting buying Retrospect) Lindsay
Click to expand...
Absolutely not. LTO tapes are good for 1,000's of writes. Those tapes should last you quite a few years before you need to worry about replacing them. Another reason LTO is such a good solution.

My point was simply that erasing is not required when you're overwriting, so why use any of the tape's life for an unnecessary operation.

Tim
 
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That's appended data.

That's appended data.

Harry Lipnick said:
Hi Tim-
I'm looking into LTO solutions, but having never use one before I'm wondering whether or not tapes can be written to sequentially (100GB this week, 400GB next month, etc.) or if it's a one time deal, and then erase and re-write. Thanks for being so generous with your knowledge.
Peace,

-Harry
Click to expand...
Hi Harry,

You can append data and (if you're using BRU PE), the software will tell you when you've filled a tape and prompt you for a new one. You don't need to worry about whether your data will all fit onto one tape since we will gladly write your data to as many tapes as are required.

Tim
 
Tim Jones said:
Hi Harry,

You can append data and (if you're using BRU PE), the software will tell you when you've filled a tape and prompt you for a new one. You don't need to worry about whether your data will all fit onto one tape since we will gladly write your data to as many tapes as are required.

Tim
Click to expand...

Fantastic. That's the answer I was hoping for. I was wondering too, if I wanted to make two identical copies with only one drive, can BRU PE "print" 2 copies without having to recreate the session?
Peace,

-Harry
 
Harry Lipnick said:
Fantastic. That's the answer I was hoping for. I was wondering too, if I wanted to make two identical copies with only one drive, can BRU PE "print" 2 copies without having to recreate the session?
Peace,

-Harry
Click to expand...
While Doubler mode is designed for use with 2 drives simultaneously, for the 2.1 release, we will allow you to run Doubler mode to a single drive specifying the number of copies that you want.

For now, while you don't have to recreate the job definition, you will need to click the "Create Archive" button twice :smiley:.

Tim
 
Tim Jones said:
While Doubler mode is designed for use with 2 drives simultaneously, for the 2.1 release, we will allow you to run Doubler mode to a single drive specifying the number of copies that you want.

For now, while you don't have to recreate the job definition, you will need to click the "Create Archive" button twice :smiley:.

Tim
Click to expand...

Cool beans man. Thanks.
Peace,

-Harry
 
Hey Tim,

Having slight issues using the Tape Doubler function with BRU PE 2.2.0. Both HP Storageworks Ultrium 3000 SAS external drives running the doubler are not running at the same speed. Also, one tape is putting more media on it than the other when I need to insert the second tape for the back up. One LTO 4 tape has 757 GB, the other stops at 690 GB.

Any thoughts on what might be going on? Thanks!
 
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