Backup Masters: Three Streamers at 10, 50 and 100 GB — THG.RU

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Three Streamers at 10, 50 and 100 GB» —>

Introduction

Streamers have always been considered very special and somehow exotic hardware. The first desktop models were attached to either the floppy controller or to a SCSI controller. With the increase of hard drive capacities and the incredible success of the CD, most home users cannot even remember the existance of the good old backup-hardware called streamer.

Indeed, most users nowadays prefer to use CD-RWs or CD-Rs to backup important data for a number of reasons above all, CD recorders have become inexpensive and affordable for the average user. Also, the process of recording a CD is quite easy in that it is very similar to copying files on a hard drive. In addition, it can be used for many more tasks than simple data backups. The CD itself is, of course, very portable, letting you easily copy your data to any computer that has a CD-ROM drive.

Streamer Basics

Streamers do not have the flexibility and portability advantages mentioned above. The tape is usually written sequentially, which makes it more time-consuming to access files, since you would have to manually forward the tape to the location on the desired data. However, this inconvenience is normally not an issue with streamers, because they are typically used to backup and transfer large quantities of data in their entirety, not individal parts of data. Generally, streamer tapes have a large storage capacity, so that huge backups can run unattended, which is a definite advantage over CD-Rs as a backup medium. For example, if you had to backup 3 GB of data onto CD-Rs, you would have to change the CD five times.

Choosing A Size and Type

Normally your streamer’s native capacity should exceed the size of your hard drive, plus some extra space. However, purchasing a smaller streamer can sometimes make sense as well, particularly if you want to backup only those files that were modified and not your whole system.

There are two types of backup: The first approach is to use a new tape for each and every backup, regardless the data volume. After backup, the tape is stored in a secure location. The second method is to continue using a tape until it has almost reached its full capacity. This way is definitely more affordable than getting a new tape for every run, but on the other hand, all backup sets will be lost if something happens to the tape.

I do not recommend choosing a streamer by the type of the media, though many people do that. The most important factor is of course reliability and capacity, followed by performance. A streamer that is capable of storing several dozen gigabytes onto a tape is not worth a straw if it requires too much time to exploit the maximum capacity.

In this respect the Seagate TapeStor USB streamer does not get very good grades. However, you should take into account that this one is an external model and certainly has the best connectivity — thanks to its USB interface. Every computer today has at least one or two ports, so attaching this device should be no problem at all.

Amazing Numbers

In the streamer sector it is quite common to advertise every product at double the native capacity, assuming a data compression ratio of 2:1. Actually, it is quite difficult to reach such a good compression, as many types of data are either already compressed (JPEG graphics files for example) or simply cannot be compressed very well.

Before you buy a product, make sure that there is no misunderstanding with regard to the native capacity. Even transfer speeds are sometimes based on compressed data, so better double-check this first.

Data Safety

The feature that all streamers have in common is that they use magnetic media, which means that streamer tapes are sensitive to electric magnetic fields, cellular phones and other environmental factors, such as sunlight and humidity. That’s why data safety is highly dependant on the way you handle the tapes. Be careful to store tapes in a dark, dry and cool environment. Also, keep both the drive and the media taped well protected from dust.

Disaster Recovery

I’m sure that many people consider streamers as old-fashined hardware. However, there is one very important type of backup which makes a tape drive much more valuable than other solutions.

First we should make clear that it is no problem to backup single files, as those can be restored easily. In contrast, it is not that easy to re-install a fully-featured and of course working (!) Windows NT or 2000 Server that may be running sophisticated configurations of server software like e.g. Microsoft Exchange server (a software which will give you a headache until it works properly). In addition to the basic software setup — although ‘basic’ may be the wrong word for the installation of a server — a disaster recovery backup will include all user data (email and system accounts), the latest version of server-based network applications like replication utilities and other administration tools.

Disaster Recovery is a feature that is supported by most professional backup suites today (including Backup Exec and ArcServe IT). You can have the software make a set of floppy discs, which will allow you to boot the crashed server. They will automatically address the streamer and start the recovery procedure after key pressed — the installed OS that has been damaged will be overwritten. This process is still lasting quite a while, but it is definitely much safer and faster than re-installing the whole operating system and software — which will certainly take days until everything will work again.

Seagate TapeStor STT6201U

The TapeStor USB comes with a stand that allows you to place it vertically. The power supply LED continues to consume power even after you turn the drive off, but the streamer fortunately has a hardware power switch that will stop its energy consumption as well as its detection under the operating system. As typical for most other Travan drives, the TapeStor is not particularly quiet.

The STT6201U is available in various versions and shipped with a simple version of Backup Exec:

That’s the window that appears during backup, restore and comparison operations.

Here you can see the backup window. It lets you change all the important settings on a single page, including backup features (verification and compression), drive selection and file selection. Later on in this article, we will take a look at Backup Exec 8.0 (shipped with the Viper II), which is much more complicated. The reason that the TapeStor USB comes with a simplified version of Backup Exec is that this model is meant to be used for personal backups or to make data portable. The other streamer models are meant for professional use, so they need more extensive features (including network backup functions), allowing them to span a backup over several drives, or to use multiple drives for redundancy reasons.

Find detailed specifications of Seagate’s TapeStor STT6201U.

Seagate Viper 200

The Viper II uses the Ultrium format to store 100 GB of uncompressed data onto one tape — quite a large amount of data. The drive family is available in both internal and external versions and also in LVD and HVD (Low or High Voltage Differential) models. We tested the internal version which requires a full size 5.25″ bay (twice the height of a standard CD drive). The prices start at $5900, which is even more than some people would spend for a car. On the other hand, that price may be well worth it, since you will be entrusting your valuable data to it.

The drive is quite heavy (almost 3 kg), so I would recommend installing it in the lowest drive bay to ensure that the tower case does not fall over if it is inadvertently bumped. Another reason for installing it in the lowest bay is to keep it at the center of the case, thus allowing it to receive sufficient airflow and remain properly cooled.

With its advanced features, good performance, large capacity and bundled software, the Viper 200 is a very attractive backup drive at a formidable price.

That’s the main screen of Backup Exec from Veritas Software. It took me a while to figure out how to delete a tape, because the function is located a bit illogically, in the ‘devices’ screen, rather than ‘media’, which one would have expected. Backup Exec 8.5 does not work under Windows 95/98/ME but merely with Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 2000. That is because parts of the software run as OS-services, which is not possible with the consumer versions of Windows.

Seagate Viper 200, Continued

The assistant is launched as soon as Backup Exec starts by default. Here you can easily chose basic functions, as well as advanced features such as drive pool functions and automation setup.

By the way, a slimmed version of Backup Exec is part of Windows NT 4.0. Version 8.0 is a further development with more features.

The options window is much more complex than the same window in the version of Backup Exec that comes with the TapeStor USB.

View the detailed specifications of Seagate’s Viper 200.

Tandberg SLR100

The SLR100 is the top model in Tandberg’s SLR streamer family (100 GB compressed, 50 GB uncompressed). It is available in capacities of 12 to 50 GB. The drive was noticeably slower than the Viper 200 from Seagate, but quieter as well. A nice feature is the ability to adjust the transfer speed to the interface via a system called ‘auto-sensing’.

Here you can see the back of this external drive. Tandberg provides an active SCSI terminator and a 80-pin SCSI cable (0.9 m). The ID has to be chosen the classic way, i.e. by setting it at the back of the device. I liked the sealing of the drive cooler, which prevents dust from getting inside the case.

That’s how the front of the drive looks.

Tandberg SLR100, Continued

In the custom installation mode, you are given the option of installing several services in order to get a scalable and manageable backup system.

That is the backup wizard of ArcServe IT.

After measuring the backup time with a good old stop watch, the Server Admin service provided me with the time that the backup took (screenshot shows the backup time for my 2.07 GB set with verify).

Find out more about Tandberg’s Linear Head Servo Technology.

More about the SLR100 drive.

Test Setup

I collected 2.07 GB (2,227,218,801 Bytes) of data for performance testing: 16,004 files in 966 directories. The data consists of 60% program files, 20% MP3 files and 20% graphics files (JPEGs, GIFs and TIFs) of widely differing size.

Please note that the USB streamer will not be compared with the two high-end models, for the simple reason that Seagate’s TapeStor USB is a consumer product, while the others are definitely not meant for the mass market.

Test Results — Backup Time

You can clearly see that the Seagate Viper 200 is definitely the fastest drive, as it only took 5 min. and 20 sec. To backup my test data of 2.07 GB. Tandberg’s drive took double the time but produced less noise. The USB streamer from Seagate required almost two hours for this backup.

Backup Performance

I provide you with two numbers per drive: The performance we measured in our tests and also the number which the manufacturers name on their website. As you can see, the real world performance is quite far away from the ‘official numbers.

Time For Maximum Capacity Backup

To give you some more numbers to think about, I did some more backup runs. This time I wanted to know the time for a total backup (filling the tape completely). Seagate’s Viper 200 should be the fastest again. Unfortunately, I did not have any drive array which could have provided 100 GB of data, so this number is estimated. The two other results (Tandberg and TapeStor USB) reflect the test results.

Comparison

Conclusion

As you can see by the insuperable performance gap, the USB drive simply cannot be compared to the two professional SCSI streamers. Of course the portable Travan streamer is a consumer product that is meant to be affordable by home and office users, and is therefore not streamlined for maximum performance. Still, $ 410 (the official price listed at Seagate’s website) is quite high — it is the same amount you could spend on a 12-speed CD writer and 300 CD-R discs; but of course you could not make an easy 10 GB backup with CD-Rs.

The Tandberg SLR100 gave a good impression. At a price of $ 2600 it is naturally unaffordable for home users, but should prove very attractive to corporate network administrators. The software gives you every possible backup option, ranging from detailed scheduling of complete system backups, drive spanning and drive pool arrays all the way to complicated network backup solutions.

Seagate’s Viper 200 is definitely the best, offering the highest capacity and best performance for backups. As far as I know there are only a few drives that are capable of beating this combination of capacity and performance, plus Backup Exec for Windows NT, Windows 2000, Netware and even IBM OS/2 Warp Server. However, such quality has its price, of course; be prepared to shell out at least $ 5500 for this baby.

It is not easy to recommend one particular drive. If you just want a single high-end streamer, the Tandberg has the better value. In terms of performance, the Viper 200 is currently unbeatable. Nevertheless, for some purposes (e.g. data safety by redundancy) and if cost is a concern, it might be better to get maybe five Tandberg streamers instead of two or three Vipers.