Backup solution

• We currently have 0.35TB of uncompressed data that needs to be backed up.
• We will ultimately need to grow in order to be able to back up 7.20TB of data over the next few years
• Media costs (assume storage needs are 2TB compressed, 3TB uncompressed):
  • 100GB LTO-1 tapes: 20x$30=$600, $900 drive cost, does not break even
  • 160GB X23 tapes: 12x$60=$720, does not break even
  • 200GB LTO-2 tapes: 10x$30=$300, $1k drive cost, break-even 11TB uncompressed
  • 400GB LTO-3 tapes: 5x$50=$250, $2k drive cost, break-even at 16TB uncompressed
  • 500GB SATAII hdds: 4x$120=$480, $0 drive cost, gold standard
• Therefore, go with 500GB hdds - we can fit a full backup on one drive at current usage
  • If we can get MHF to pay for the tape drive, do we want to do that? That have lower recurring costs, and make it easier for us to grow in the future.

Is this a pricing mistake? 20 LTO-3 tapes for $50? still doesn't help with the $2k drive cost given that we can buy up to 8TB of hard disk storage for the price of one LTO-3 drive...

this seems to exist too (20 LTO-1 tapes for $40) and would drop the cost to be competitive (break-even point at 4TB compressed); this 20-pack of LTO-4 tapes for $161 also seems to be interesting.

Hard drives

• We need a server with hot-swap bays so we swap drives in and out. This starts around $2100 [1] and $1000 for 10 500GB hard drives [2](I have one spec'd out at penguincomputing)- Dell doesn't seem to have what we want for cheaper.
• 10 500GB hd's: $1000

Tapes

• This requires a server to run the tape drives, tape drives, and the tapes
• We should probably have 2 tape drives and have AFS stuff separate from other tapes- it doesn't seem like AFS will work well sharing tapes
• Server: $1100 (Poweredge 860)
• Dell 2 Rackmount LTO-2 Tape drives: $3787
• Tapes: