Backup Central

I have been reading through these forums trying to get a handle on how LTO systems work and decided to post a question and see if anyone can help me.

I work for a small company and we have decided to backup data for a client ourselves instead of paying a 3rd party to do it. Unfortunetly the client we are backing the data up for only utilizes a LTO-1 system.

So I have been tasked with the job of finding everything I need to get data from an external hard drive to a LTO-1 tape. I have been doing alot of reading on the internet but information on LTO-1 is hard to come by and my expertise in this area is very limited.

My question to you is, what do I need in order to get information from an external hard drive to an LTO 1 tape? I obviously need a LTO-1 drive (what one is best, if I can find one?), what kind of computer will I need and what kind of operating system will I need to support this older generation LTO drive? How easy and straight forward is it to hook up and become operational?

Really any information you can offer would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you in advance.

My understanding is LTO drives will write one generation back, and read two.

What this means is that you can get an LTO-2 drive and define it as LTO-1 and write your data.
OR if you are only reading, you can get an LTO-3 drive and still read data written from an LTO-1 drive.

I do not know if you can get an LTO-1 drive but there are LTO-2 drievs available.

If you already have the drive set up, what you are looking for is software - NetBackup is what I am familiar with and I can tell you it is pretty much tape non-specific, in that you can define your LTO tape drive as a storage device and back up no problem.

Again, quote and code have been removed.

Ironic, that smiley is called 'twisted'....anyway....

>>My understanding is LTO drives will write one generation back, and read two.

100% Accurate.

>>So I have been tasked with the job of finding everything I need to get data from an external hard drive to a LTO-1 tape. I have been doing alot of reading on the internet but information on LTO-1 is hard to come by and my expertise in this area is very limited.

That's because LTO-1 is about seven years old, end of life, and almost no longer available. Even an LTO-3 tape (400GB native) will cost you about $30 and an LTO-4 tape (800GB native) about the same. However, to read the LTO-1 tapes, you're upgrade stops at LTO-3. Even the purchase of an LTO-3 system now will cost you almost as much as an LTO-4.

>>what do I need in order to get information from an external hard drive to an LTO 1 tape?

Software and some hardware. The software needs to be able to write to tape and the hardware needs to support the system you're going to use it on, be it Windows, Mac, or Linux.

>>I obviously need a LTO-1 drive (what one is best, if I can find one?)

Good one! The key word in that whole sentence is "if". In all seriousness though, you won't find any new ones. If you find one that is advertised as "new", it's more than likely "newly refurbished" or even "grey" market (which isn't supported by anybody -- even if there were any companies that provided LTO-1 tape support any longer).

>>what kind of computer will I need and what kind of operating system will I need to support this older generation LTO drive?

Pick one. Seriously. There are many companies out there. For example, TOLIS Group (which is the company that makes BRU -- what I use), sells hardware bundles with everything you need for use on Mac OS X and Linux systems (I have an older system at home that runs Linux and uses BRU Server Desktop for Linux). Don't have either? Well, do you have an PC you don't use anymore or can re-assign? Then install Ubuntu Linux (probably the most user-friendly) and then use BRU on that machine to backup to the tape device.

Frankly, the choice is yours and when you decide what you want to use for an operating system, that will dictate the hardware and software that you can use.