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NVSFTIII.DOC -- 19961206 -- Email thread on System Fault Tolerant vIII
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Date: Thu, 5 Dec 1996 14:15:40 -500
From: Jon Dustin - UCT <jdustin@USM.MAINE.EDU>
Subject: Re: Tape backups on SFTIII servers

I have been running two pairs of SFTIII servers for about six months;
we are very happy with the results so far. (comments follow)

>>I'm about to purchase (in the next few weeks) a pair of servers running
>>Netware 4.11 and SFT III.
>>
>>I intend to back up to a DAT Drive with a 4-tape hopper using either
>>Backup Exec or Arcserve.
>>
>>I've checked the FAQ which says that Arcserve 6 doesn't work and my
>>reseller says that Backup Exec is very slow.

Don't believe your reseller. We have Backup Exec v7.01b running on a
v3.12 Pentium 75, with an Adaptec 2940 PCI SCSI card, connected to a
Quantum DLT4000 tape drive. Very speedy indeed! (even for remote
servers across the wire) We backup one SFTIII pair at 20
megabytes/minute (1.8GB backed up in 1.5 hours)

Key to remote server tape backup speed are two issues: network
topology/speed, and tape unit/scsi adapter. I currently have our
backup server connected to a dedicated port of a 3com LS1000, and the
SFTIII pair is using the 100TX ports. *VERY* fast backups.

>>Is this correct ? Can I do tape backups of my SFT III servers?
>>
>>What would you recommend ?

Buy a DLT tape drive. The tapes are expensive, but you will have
*much* greater capacity (20 GB native on the 400 series, 35 GB native
on the 7000, multiply by 2 for compressed). Make *sure* the SCSI card
you use in your backup server can handle the load (I like the Adaptec
2940, other people like other models). Connect the servers with as
fast a connection as you can (perhaps creating a dedicated backup
network is worth the cost?)

>My research discovered that no server-installed tape backup solution is
>supported on 4.x SFTIII.  Period.  Do it over the wire.  My discussions
>with Cheyenne's product manager (ongoing) communicates a dedication to
>having a supported product.  It will likely be available for the 4.11
>platform first.  Initial beta-testing should begin soon.
>
>This status killed our SFTIII deployment as high-throughput tape backup is
>required.  Ya know mission-critical apps tend to have alot of data...  I
>feel this is a huge failing.  It's implied that Novell's changes to 4.11
>will allow a more stable implementation of a server-based backup.  Time
>will tell.

True, server-based backup is faster, but how much data are you
backing up? If time is *that* critical, make a dedicated 100TX
network (maybe even switched?) for the SFTIII pair and the backup
server, and watch your backups fly...

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Date: Thu, 5 Dec 1996 15:53:14 -0600
From: "Lindsay R. Johnson" <lrj5@IAONLINE.COM>
Subject: SFTIII Rumor...

According to a statment from a major PC manufacturer SE which was repeated
to me:

As of this summer Novell will not be recommending nor supporting SFTIII.

I'll follow up when I hear more from someone who can officially confirm or
deny...

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Date: Fri, 6 Dec 1996 15:31:41 +1000
From: John Tufts <JohnT@MAIL.KIDS.USYD.EDU.AU>
Subject: SFTIII backup

Concurring with one reply I have seen on the digest already, there is
nothing that will  backup SFTIII server with any speed, unless it is
accross the wire.

We finally have  Arcserve 5.01g going on 3 pairs but there are probably
not many sites in the world that have managed this. I know one large site
that struggled for quit a while and then scrapped it.

Sbackup works, Arcserve6 accross the wire works and  is FAST. The
only other possibility I can think of is using Cheyenne Jetserve (High
speed, seemed to work but i tried only the demo)

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Date: Thu, 5 Dec 96 07:33:55 -0000
From: Randy Grein <rgrein@halcyon.com>
To: "NetWare 4 list" <netw4-l@bgu.edu>
Subject: Re: SFT III patches

>This may be a dumb question, but I have to ask it anyway. There are lots
>of TIDs and patches for SFT III 4.1 at http://support.novell.com/ (if you
>do a search on SFT III). My (probably stupid) question is, do these apply
>to SFT III 4.11 (ie: IntraNetWare) as well, or have the "bugs" been fixed?
>I don't see any TIDs that specifically say SFT III 4.11 (only 4.1). I'll
>be upgrading a 4.11 network to SFT III 4.11 this weekend and need to know
>whether I should download the patches or not.

The short answer is no! With 4.10 and above SFTIII is part of the core
NOS; not a separate product. 4.10 patches don't work on 4.11, ergo don't
download SFT III 4.10 patches for SFT III 4.11.

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