Simpana

I've recently come across Simpana backup software which, lo and behold,
can integrate with Oracle RMAN using libobk. Does anyone here have any
experience with it? What are the opinions?



--
http://mgogala.freehostia.com

On Wed, 11 Jul 2012 14:00:32 +0000, Mladen Gogala wrote:

> I've recently come across Simpana backup software which, lo and behold,
> can integrate with Oracle RMAN using libobk. Does anyone here have any
> experience with it? What are the opinions?

Not many replies, huh? Simpana backup is an alternative to the much more
expensive products like NetBackup and EMC NetWorker. The manufacturer is
CommVault. It looks really nice on paper and the entry level price is
much lower than Symantec, so I wanted to find out if there are any users.
Apparently not on this group.
The other question would be how many of you are using Oracle Secure
Backup? Are you aware that purchase of Sun Microsystems did not only
include Java, UltraSPARC and Solaris bud also StorageTEK, the leading
tape storage manufacturer. Those guys have 5TB tape with 240 MB/sec IO
throughput per single tape.



--
http://mgogala.byethost5.com

Mladen Gogala wrote,on my timestamp of 15/07/2012 5:32 AM:

> The other question would be how many of you are using Oracle Secure
> Backup? Are you aware that purchase of Sun Microsystems did not only
> include Java, UltraSPARC and Solaris bud also StorageTEK, the leading
> tape storage manufacturer. Those guys have 5TB tape with 240 MB/sec IO
> throughput per single tape.


if only I could get some idiots who shall remain nameless away from DataDomain's
"deduplication"... 10 months later and EMC still has to deliver ANYTHING that
works with MSSQL and Oracle!

On Jul 14, 12:32*pm, Mladen Gogala <gogala.mla...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Wed, 11 Jul 2012 14:00:32 +0000, Mladen Gogala wrote:
> > I've recently come across Simpana backup software which, lo and behold,
> > can integrate with Oracle RMAN using libobk. Does anyone here have any
> > experience with it? What are the opinions?
>
> Not many replies, huh? Simpana backup is an alternative to the much more
> expensive products like NetBackup and EMC NetWorker. The manufacturer is
> CommVault. It looks really nice on paper and the entry level price is
> much lower than Symantec, so I wanted to find out if there are any users.
> Apparently not on this group.
> The other question would be how many of you are using Oracle Secure
> Backup? Are you aware that purchase of Sun Microsystems did not only
> include Java, UltraSPARC and Solaris bud also StorageTEK, the leading
> tape storage manufacturer. Those guys have 5TB tape with 240 MB/sec IO
> throughput per single tape.
>
> --http://mgogala.byethost5.com

I've crossed over to the cyber side. I don't use tape or backup
managers any more.

jg
--
@home.com is bogus.
PCAS - http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/...lture-service/

On Mon, 16 Jul 2012 08:40:55 -0700, joel garry wrote:


> I've crossed over to the cyber side. I don't use tape or backup
> managers any more.

Really? How do you backup your database(s)? Tapes are still much cheaper
and than disks.



--
http://mgogala.byethost5.com

On Wednesday, July 11, 2012 9:00:32 AM UTC-5, Mladen Gogala wrote:
> I've recently come across Simpana backup software which, lo and behold,
> can integrate with Oracle RMAN using libobk. Does anyone here have any
> experience with it? What are the opinions?
>
>
>
> --
> http://mgogala.freehostia.com

Have used Simpana/Commvault at 2 places.

The only complaints the backup admins had was that when we used cron for the backups Simpana did not track the status of the backups very well. They lost some visibility to what was going on. That may have been a few versionsback however.

I had one issue that I never really got an answer to. When trying to do a restore from a few months back most of the backups had aged out of the system and we only had a few recent choices to restore from.
We could see the backups on the tape when we browsed the tape but we could not get RMAN to find them at all. A Simpana/Commvault rep was on the phone with us and he implied that it was a bug. This was 2 years ago and possiblya few versions ago as well. The company I was with was not big on upgrading software. It is also entirely possible that was due to some nonstandard and wrong setup we had.

I had done other restores with no issues but none of them involved trying to go so far back in time.

On Jul 16, 5:35*pm, Mladen Gogala <gogala.mla...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, 16 Jul 2012 08:40:55 -0700, joel garry wrote:
> > I've crossed over to the cyber side. *I don't use tape or backup
> > managers any more.
>
> Really? How do you backup your database(s)? Tapes are still much cheaper
> and than disks.
>
> --http://mgogala.byethost5.com

Not cheaper if you figure in the labor costs, failure rates, and
sysadmin costs for the scale of the oltp ops of a medium sized
business.

If you have multiple sans and other storage available over multiple
sites anyways, it becomes an incremental capital cost. With non-db
docs and email and such being automatically copied over lines sized
for video, it's just some more data to add in the db backups. And
you can call it a private cloud to impress the easily impressed.

Surely cheaper than DG or strange block copy equivalents, although
they serve a different purpose.

As always with this kind of evaluation, YMMV. But I must say, I've
seen tapes fuck up in every site I've been in the last 30 years (in
'80s cases, stuff like adjusting drives making all old tapes
unreadable), and I'm not sorry to see them go. Even if I had to do
some manual copy to store offsite, I'd just go buy 10 Tb-scale usb
disks to cycle through, ya know? Even NASA has to get stuff _off_ of
tapes before they deteriorate.

I have several generations of tapes and associated hardware in my
basement, that I'll never even turn on. How silly is that? My last
home PDP backup was around the end of 1987.

jg
--
@home.com is bogus.
http://searchoracle.techtarget.com/n...3-revenue-loss

On Tue, 17 Jul 2012 09:43:46 -0700, joel garry wrote:

> Not cheaper if you figure in the labor costs,

That can be outsourced.

> failure rates, and

That can be ignored. What you don't know can't hurt you. Not sure if that
applies to storage tapes as well?

> sysadmin costs for the scale of the oltp ops of a medium sized business.

That can be outsourced, too.



--
http://mgogala.byethost5.com

On Tue, 17 Jul 2012 07:46:36 -0700, scottgamble@comcast.net wrote:


> Have used Simpana/Commvault at 2 places.
>
> The only complaints the backup admins had was that when we used cron for
> the backups Simpana did not track the status of the backups very well.
> They lost some visibility to what was going on. That may have been a few
> versions back however.
>
> I had one issue that I never really got an answer to. When trying to do
> a restore from a few months back most of the backups had aged out of the
> system and we only had a few recent choices to restore from.
> We could see the backups on the tape when we browsed the tape but we
> could not get RMAN to find them at all. A Simpana/Commvault rep was on
> the phone with us and he implied that it was a bug. This was 2 years ago
> and possibly a few versions ago as well. The company I was with was not
> big on upgrading software. It is also entirely possible that was due to
> some nonstandard and wrong setup we had.
>
> I had done other restores with no issues but none of them involved
> trying to go so far back in time.

Thanks, Scott. That's exactly what I've been looking for.



--
http://mgogala.freehostia.com

On Tuesday, July 17, 2012 10:13:46 PM UTC+5:30, joel garry wrote:
> On Jul 16, 5:35*pm, Mladen Gogala <gogala.mla...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > On Mon, 16 Jul 2012 08:40:55 -0700, joel garry wrote:
>
> > > I've crossed over to the cyber side. *I don't use tape or backup
>
> > > managers any more.
>
> >
>
> > Really? How do you backup your database(s)? Tapes are still much cheaper
>
> > and than disks.
>
> >
>
> > --http://mgogala.byethost5.com
>
>
>
> Not cheaper if you figure in the labor costs, failure rates, and
>
> sysadmin costs for the scale of the oltp ops of a medium sized
>
> business.
>
>
>
> If you have multiple sans and other storage available over multiple
>
> sites anyways, it becomes an incremental capital cost. With non-db
>
> docs and email and such being automatically copied over lines sized
>
> for video, it's just some more data to add in the db backups. And
>
> you can call it a private cloud to impress the easily impressed.
>
>
>
> Surely cheaper than DG or strange block copy equivalents, although
>
> they serve a different purpose.
>
>
>
> As always with this kind of evaluation, YMMV. But I must say, I've
>
> seen tapes fuck up in every site I've been in the last 30 years (in
>
> '80s cases, stuff like adjusting drives making all old tapes
>
> unreadable), and I'm not sorry to see them go. Even if I had to do
>
> some manual copy to store offsite, I'd just go buy 10 Tb-scale usb
>
> disks to cycle through, ya know? Even NASA has to get stuff _off_ of
>
> tapes before they deteriorate.
>
>
>
> I have several generations of tapes and associated hardware in my
>
> basement, that I'll never even turn on. How silly is that? My last
>
> home PDP backup was around the end of 1987.
>
>
>
> jg
>
> --
>
> @home.com is bogus.
>
> http://searchoracle.techtarget.com/n...3-revenue-loss

the last backup in 1987? i was born at that time. great to see even backupswere taken at that time where technology of computers was in the beginningphase.

On Aug 3, 11:14Â*am, महेश à°•à±�మారà±� G.M.K <maheshkuma...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Tuesday, July 17, 2012 10:13:46 PM UTC+5:30, joel garry wrote:
> > On Jul 16, 5:35Â*pm, Mladen Gogala <gogala.mla...@gmail.com> wrote:

>
> > I have several generations of tapes and associated hardware in my
>
> > basement, that I'll never even turn on. Â*How silly is that? Â*My last
>
> > home PDP backup was around the end of 1987.
>
> > jg

>
> the last backup in 1987? i was born at that time. great to see even backups were taken at that time where technology of computers was in the beginning phase.

rotflmao!

Actually, my first paid computer job as a junior programmer had me
backing up the minicomputer in 1980. Two 20M drives a bit larger than
a washing machine, with disk platters the size of a birthday cake in a
cake dish. It was a bit of a workout carrying those back and forth
between buildings. It was a big improvement when we got 300M drives
and a new Kennedy 9-track tape drive!

This one is nicer than the one we had:
http://www.hschumacher.de/assets/ima...cPDP11-343.jpg

jg
--
@home.com is bogus.
But is it art?
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/sd...06b0cfcd1.html

On Friday, August 3, 2012 1:19:42 PM UTC-6, joel garry wrote:
> On Aug 3, 11:14Â*am, महेश à°•à±�మారà±� G.M.K <maheshkuma...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > On Tuesday, July 17, 2012 10:13:46 PM UTC+5:30, joel garry wrote:
>
> > > On Jul 16, 5:35Â*pm, Mladen Gogala <gogala.mla...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> >
>
> > > I have several generations of tapes and associated hardware in my
>
> >
>
> > > basement, that I'll never even turn on. Â*How silly is that? Â* My last
>
> >
>
> > > home PDP backup was around the end of 1987.
>
> >
>
> > > jg
>
>
>
> >
>
> > the last backup in 1987? i was born at that time. great to see even backups were taken at that time where technology of computers was in the beginning phase.
>
>
>
> rotflmao!
>
>
>
> Actually, my first paid computer job as a junior programmer had me
>
> backing up the minicomputer in 1980. Two 20M drives a bit larger than
>
> a washing machine, with disk platters the size of a birthday cake in a
>
> cake dish. It was a bit of a workout carrying those back and forth
>
> between buildings. It was a big improvement when we got 300M drives
>
> and a new Kennedy 9-track tape drive!
>
>
>
> This one is nicer than the one we had:
>
> http://www.hschumacher.de/assets/ima...cPDP11-343.jpg
>
>
>
> jg
>
> --
>
> @home.com is bogus.
>
> But is it art?
>
> http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/sd...06b0cfcd1.html

I spent many an hour in college programming on a PDP-11/70, as well as spending countless hours on an audio-coupled terminal running rate equations for chemical processes for my degree (back then the Chemistry department was tossed the hand-offs from Computer Science so while students programming COBOL, Assembly (IBM and VAX [do NOT get me started on VAX 'assembly']), FORTRAN, ADA, PL/1 and Lisp got interactive terminals we got the dial-up lines and TTY terminals.

I remember well lugging huge stacks of punch cards, meticulously organized,holding my precious IBM Assembler programs (we did eventually get to interactive terminals before the semester end) and hauling the same sort of disks Joel mentioned for the PDP-11 and thinking, believe it or not, that substantial progress had been made in storage technology. Of course those are nothing like we have today -- terabytes of storage on a disk no larger thanan old car radio used to be, gigabytes of storage on a memory card that could get lost on a key chain.

I also remember Oracle version 6 where both hot backups and PL/SQL were introduced. How far we've come since then.

Those were the days.


David Fitzjarrell

On 08/03/2012 08:14 PM, महेश క�మార� G.M.K wrote:

> the last backup in 1987? i was born at that time. great to see even
> backups were taken at that time where technology of computers was in
> the beginning phase.

You need an update of your knowledge of computer history. In the 80es
there were things called "home computers". You would guess that for
technology in a beginning phase only companies and labs would have it.

Cheers

robert