To me the problem is having the drives around and more importantly, the interfaces to the drives. I think that probably the best bet is to plan on "archiving" a TSM server with a drive along with the media periodically. Snap off the last database backup, restore it on the to be archived server (a good test in itself), and store the whole kit together. If one needs to retrieve an archive, fire up the archived server, query the database to determine what tape is required, get it, retrieve the data and put the whole mess away.
The other way to do this would be to migrate the archived data to new tape media as you march through time. I like this approach as that will have the double advantage of refreshing and verifying the data on those tapes. One could shelve the media in the archive pools and do this on a very controller basis when the media changes. Lots of data movement potentially, but it would become a nicely verified process that your auditors could look at to help ensure compliance. It's one thing to say we're doing and quite another to show we're doing it. Having the archive data more readily retrievable has obvious benefits as well. Kelly Lipp CTO STORServer, Inc. 485-B Elkton Drive Colorado Springs, CO 80907 719-266-8777 x7105 www.storserver.com -----Original Message----- From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:ads...@vm.marist.edu] On Behalf Of Huebschman, George J. Sent: Tuesday, May 05, 2009 2:25 PM To: ADSM-L@VM.MARIST.EDU Subject: Re: [ADSM-L] LTO for long term archiving Does anyone have 25 year old tape media or tape drives around? Will you stil be able to use LTOx media in 25 years? -----Original Message----- From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:ads...@vm.marist.edu] On Behalf Of Thomas Denier Sent: Tuesday, May 05, 2009 4:11 PM To: ADSM-L@VM.MARIST.EDU Subject: [ADSM-L] LTO for long term archiving I work for a large hospital. I have been asked to investigate possible configurations for archiving something between a few hundred terabytes and a petabyte of data for 25 years. This would be clinical records that we need to keep in case of a malpractice suit. The retention period is 25 years because there are two ways we can get sued for alleged malpractice involving a pediatric patient. The parents or guardians have a seven year window of opportunity to file suit, starting at the time of the alleged malpractice. The patient has a seven year window of opportunity, starting at his or her 18th birthday. In principle, the retention period should vary depending on patient age, but nobody I have talked to so far thinks it is practical to sort records in this way; they want a uniform retention period that covers the worst case scenario (a patient allegedly harmed as a newborn suing just before the end of his or her seven year window). As far as I can tell, the most expensive part of such a configuration is the media, and LTO media will cost about a third as much as the most economical MagStar media (extended length 3592 volumes read and written with TS1130 drives). With the sort of workload described above I don't expect any difficulty staying within the recommended limit on the number of times an LTO volume passes over the tape heads. Are there any other reasons to be nervous about using LTO for long term archives? IMPORTANT: E-mail sent through the Internet is not secure. Legg Mason therefore recommends that you do not send any confidential or sensitive information to us via electronic mail, including social security numbers, account numbers, or personal identification numbers. Delivery, and or timely delivery of Internet mail is not guaranteed. Legg Mason therefore recommends that you do not send time sensitive or action-oriented messages to us via electronic mail. This message is intended for the addressee only and may contain privileged or confidential information. Unless you are the intended recipient, you may not use, copy or disclose to anyone any information contained in this message. If you have received this message in error, please notify the author by replying to this message and then kindly delete the message. Thank you.
