Many thanks to the responders to my question regarding Networker vs.
Legato :
Paul Sinclair [Paul.Sinclair_at_XXXXX.com]
damian pascale [damianp_at_XXXXX.com
William H. Magill [magill_at_XXXXX.edu
Kemp, Tom [Tom.Kemp_at_XXXXX.com
paul osullivan_at_XXXXX.com
Stephen L LaBelle [labelles_at_XXXXX.edu
Jim.R.Jones_at_XXXXX.com
Chandrasekhar, Kris [Kris.Chandrasekhar_at_XXXXX.com
Kurt Ludwig [kurt.ludwig_at_XXXXX.com
Teresa Biehler <tpbsys_at_XXXXX.edu
David J. DeWolfe [sxdjd_at_XXXXX.edu
Williford, Blake [BlakeWilliford_at_XXXXX.com
I've also included a prior summary at the end.
Here are the responses with identifying marks filed off :
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Would advise Netbackup due to support and filesystem integration.
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legato support leaves much to be desired
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We use Legato exclusively. We have a deployed system using a 3 node
ES40 cluster (4.0F)attached to an EMC Symmetrix via a EMC
Connectrix. 2 of the 3 ES40's act as storage nodes and have TL891's
attached. The cluster is running Oracle and we backup the dump files
only. We get great throughput to the DLT7000's(8-10meg per sec), as
the ES40's can pump alot of data, and the EMC disks are quick too.
We are looking into Legato's celestra, but it doesnt look like it will
be supported on Tru64 for a while...
Im going to Veritas's big conference in LAs Vegas in Oct..to check out
them out... We might have to switch to something other than Legato
since we just got bought out..
Anyway, Legato has its faults, as do the rest of them. Legato is
stable on Unix, less so on NT(as a backup server app) Its disaster
recovery is not great, performance is wonderful, and with their new
NDMP compliant Celestra, SAN backups will be great...but it is still
an immature product(the celestra portion).
-------
Major change for Legato with the 6.0 relase just relased.
Support for Macintosh clients is being dropped as of March 2001.
Other than that, Legato knows about AdvFS, and as far as I know Veritas
does not.
[ I'm checking on Veritas' support of ADVfs, since they use tar format
it's likely that they don't support restoring ACL's, quota's, etc. -- acd ]
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I use Legato and have had pretty good luck with it.
One thing of concern about Legato, they are rumoured in shaky
financial condition. I have heard that from more than one source.
Who knows whats really going on with Legato. Please do not use
my name if you post a summary and include this about Legato.
Just, FYI I attended a COMPAQ SAN presentation yesterday here in
Denver. Veritas had a table there as a Compaq business partner.
BTW, I just bought 10 more Legato client connections, for what its
worth.
-------
To the best of my understanding, Veritas Netbackup does not support V5.0A
cluster today. This is because they haven't changed their code to handle the
new device naming structure, and the new devices are required for V5.0A
clusters. If you are running V5.0A clusters, this would be a showstopper,
depending upon your timeframe.
Note: Call Veritas to confirm what I just stated above.
[ I'm verifying this with Veritas, their web site specifically lists v5.0a
as supported but doesn't mention clusters. If the only problem was the
new device names this warning is probably outdated. -- acd ]
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We've used NSR for several years now for (Tru64) system and Oracle backups
and PC backups as well and we've had pretty good luck with it. Not to say
that there haven't been a few problems here and there. We have a tl896 tape
library attached to an 8400 via 6 scsi adapters/cables and backup the local
system and databases as well as other systems and databases across the
network. We're about to detach the tl896 from the 8400 and attach it to an
ES40. We can back up a 100G database in about 2 hours and hope to improve
on that with the NSR "power" edition (currently we run the enterprise
edition). One note on recovery with NSR. You can recover files individually
which relies on reading the NSR indexes etc. For a large database this is
NOT the way to go. We use their "fast batch" recovery when we need to
recover a large database. fast batch bypasses the index and processes via a
save-set-id (SSID) which is found on the tape itself. Recent testing
(restoring a copy of our production database to alternate storage devices)
revealed that we could restore our biggest database in about 3 hours. Not
incredible mind you, but doing it w/o the fast batch mode likely would have
taken 30+ hours. If you would like more detail, I can ask Cal (our resident
NSR guru) if he'd be willing to talk to you.
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Years ago I would say go with Networker, but the company is down, people
are jumping ship and the product has suffered over the past several years.
So today the product that is superior is NetBackup. We drop Networker as
it was heading down hill in favor of Netbackup. If you need a simple
backup solution either one will do. However, if your backup solution is
somewhat complex, SAN, remote backups, control of remote tape units, etc.
etc. I would look at Netbackup.
-------
We've been using Legato, here at Big Corp, for years. We are going to be
implementing an ES40/SAN/SCSI cluster in the near future and will be using
Legato in this new enviroment as well.
-------
We're (trying) to use netbackup here on 4.0F on an API UP2000 w/ an ADIC
Scalar 480 tape changer. We've had problems with the SCSI communication to
the drives / robot fall over in the past. We patched the OS and things
'seem' to be better, but between power outages here, it hasn't run for log
enough for us to be sure, so we still have an open case # with Veritas.
One thing I don't like about the restore software on the UNIX side is that
you can't recursively search for a file. You need to know EXACTLY where it
is on the file system. You can't restore to a remote machine (i.e. you need
to be on the machine that the backup came from to restore it)
I haven't had to try the same search criteria on the NT client side yet
(knock on wood) so I can't say wether the NT client side is better or not.
The solaris client side is the same as the Digital Unix side.
[ I'm checking with Veritas on both the file search and restore to second
node issues -- acd ]
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We are running Networker now. We are moveing to Veritas.
PRIOR SUMMARY ----------------------------------------------------------------------
Joe Ryals:
Networker was what our company used to do our backups, we are currently
rolling out Veritas NetBackup as the replacement. I am not very involved
with the backups but Networker has been quite probmatic for us. We have
(now) 2 backup servers (both running Solaris), 1 for the Unix systems
and the other for NT. Our unix servers consist of AIX, Solaris, and
Tru64. Error codes are far better in NetBackup which is something that I
do know.
I spoke to our guys that are pushing out the netbackup software and
was told that NetBackup can stream the data for better performance, it
has better library/robot controls, very easy to setup clients, more
types of clients supported, easier to restore the clients, but client
for client it is more expensive than Networker.
Jim R Jones:
I have run both, currently running VERITAS. Both are
fine products with there pro and cons. I like Veritas just a little
better. I like the way it does hot backups of oracle and other
databases, plus I believe there support is slightly better. I can
also say nice things about Networker. As we all realize the leaders
in a field will switch positions about every 6 monghs or so.
Matt Harrington:
i use Networker 4.2.5-B under Irix and like it. i hear it's easier to
use than Veritas, and I feel this is important. what i really like
about my backup system is my AIT drive (Sony) and jukebox (Qualstar).
i'm so glad i dumped DLT.
Franc Carter:
We are runnig Networker, it is tecchnically quite good for out purposes
(however we have a relatively simple setup). HOwever dealing with the
bugs and licensing issues have been a bit of a nightmare.
Kees Bol:
We use Networker for more then 5 years now (server is Tru64 Unix) and it
works well for us. Recently, because of the mess with changing licences
by Compaq we looked briefly at Veritas and found the scheduling
mechanism much better then the one in Networker. However we stay with
Networker because of the high costs and the fact that Compaq keeps doing
the support of Networker (we have a campus contract).
END PRIOR SUMMARY -------
-----Original Message-----
From: Davis, Alan [mailto:Davis_at_tessco.com]
Subject: Veritas NetBackup vs. Legato Networker
I'm evaluating NetBackup and Networker for my new ES40/SAN/SCSI cluster.
Does anyone have particular success or horror stories that they will share?
Received on Wed Sep 27 2000 - 17:14:18 NZST