[NTLUG:Discuss] Using SATA Drives to Replace Tape

[Robert Pearson]

On 1/9/06, Richard Geoffrion <ntlug at rain4us.net> wrote:
> Robert Pearson wrote:
> >Futures market bets big on start-up, 01/09/06
> ><http://www.networkworld.com/nlstoragealert16140>
> >Chicago Mercantile Exchange IT leader finds futures market banks
> >on storage start-up Copan.
>
> Replacing tape backup with SATA drives.. Sure.. I do it and it works
> DIRVISHLY.   I don't know about MAID though.  I don't personally know
> any organization that needs that much backup storage.
>
> I like the spin-down technology though.  I can see how it can save
> money.  Spinning = electricity + heat.  Heat = Electricity to cool.   I
> am curious as to how they do spin up.  They HAVE to stagger the spin
> ups... Can you imagine the power supply that would be needed to prevent
> brownouts if all the drives came on at once!!!

The article claims growth from 4 TB to 180+ TB in 2.5 years.
CDP looks like the only real solution.
Veritas released the the CDP version of NetBackup in December 2005.
The beta had been out since Spring 2005.
At a "TB per hour" it would take 180+ hours for a "Full" backup.
Not many sites have that kind of throughput capacity in the Infrastructure.

Quote from the article---
"The duty cycle - when the disks are spinning - of Serial ATA drives
is between 25% and 50%. The products from the other companies Taylor
was looking at spun their Serial ATA disks 100% of the time, meaning
that there would be more frequent drive failures."

--- this sort of threw me. For rapid query response the disks need to
be spinning. Staggered spin-up is probably the order of the day in these
"giant" disk arrays. Anybody know? Selective spin-up is even better but
I don't know anyone who knows the Content, or has it mapped, well
enough to spin-up selectively. Unless Copan and MAID provide this.

I was also under the impression that the key "Single Point of Failure
(SPOF)" of a disk is the bearings. Thermally cycling the bearings has
been the "Kiss of Death" for most disks. Spinning all the time was the
work-a-round.

Just some thoughts...