LTO Tape Backups
 

So I recently setup an HP StorageWorks Ultrium 232 LTO 1 tape drive (100GB/200GB) and used Retrospect to backup all the shares off of my Snap 4000. I got a consistent stream of 320.7 MB/min. This drive is capable of much more, so the 4000 and network are the limiting factors here. The drive itself has a data transfer rate of 115 GB per hour.

Next I want to test it against my Snap 4100, and my MaxAttach 4100 running FreeNAS.

Re: LTO Tape Backups
 

The performance doesn't sound too far off as I'd top out around 450mbpm on a 4100. HP makes a couple of great little utilities to verify where your bottleneck is, if your backing up through a Windows server.

The util's are "HP Tape Perf" and "PAT" (short for Performance Analysis Tool). Both are free from HP and don't require an install (very small executables).

HP Tape Perf will work with any sequential device (tape). It generates compressible data at 2:1 and 3:1 ratios in RAM and saturates the bus, causing the drive to stream, if the bus can handle it. When it's complete you'll get the throughput of the drive in your system.

PAT is the other side of the equation, and reads data from the source drive letter you wish to test. This includes mapped drives on your network (i.e. Snap! share). Great little application that will show the capabilities of your Snap on the network.

The lesser of the two outputs will be your bottleneck.

I find these under the HP site by searching for Downloads and Drivers, for an Ultrium 460 (LTO2 drive), and select the Windows 2000 OS. Yes, the software works on XP & 2003, but I havn't tried it on Vista personally.

Hope this helps...