D2D is really easy with Veeam if you are on vsphere platform. just dump it to a storage server that has nothing to do and then plug in a usb 2.0 retail 2TB drive and dump away.
works really well. The main problem with any drive is abuse - even RD/RDX - when they fail they can take out the server they are plugged into by nature of "windows" - or stall that controller driver if it is used for more processes. Best to separate the task of the backup over network (breaks cleanly).
i had issues with the cheap cables on the retail 2TB seagate externals (the white ones) - once i put a meaty cable in place it went from 100% unreliable to 100% reliable - go figure -
anyways $149'ish per drive plus bing?
You made me think about a couple things, I have no idea what you are talking about with the vsphere platform however. I thought about using the USB method, I think Kremlar did as well, but neither of us wanted to go that route as it really didn't seem like that robust/reliable of a technology, and I've had usb enclosures fry on me I don't know how many times. You do have a really good point on separating the backup though over the network. I'm wondering if I could do that though using software such as Backup Exec or Acronis 10 Server, I would probably need to buy another agent even if I could, so I don't know if I would want to.
I had a bad experience with USB a few times, which has made me extremely apprehensive to ever use it for any data that is important. Try it some time, take two usb connected hard drives, load up a bunch of 25+gb Acronis archives, or similar highly compressed file that absolutely has to be bit for bit to restore correctly, then, copy them from one to the other, and then try to restore one of those archives to a machine. Come time you need one of those archives for real, you probably aren't going to be a happy camper, I wasn't. I had that problem more than once, but I thought it was all about the versions of the program and stuff like that, nope, wasn't getting 100% bit for bit copies when going from usb to usb with large files 5gb+, and I've heard of others having that problem too. Ever since then, I've really strayed away whenever possible from using USB and at this point I would never rely on it for enterprise use. Your milage may vary, that is my experience however, and I certainly didn't like it, don't want a repeat performance when it counts.
True that the weakness of any drive is abuse, thats why I wanted to find a good mobile rack, they are pretty darn robust I think when you have the drive cage fully enclosed in aluminum, and decent thermal properties as well. Which brings me to what I was about to ask, at this point I'm looking at the different mobile racks available and trying to pick the best ones I can find, the ones from Granite Digital that Rebate Monger pointed out do look pretty good, I might go with those, but I was looking for some other really good options as well just for comparison.
((btw, boss boss was passing through, asked him if he'd seen my email, said yeah, as he went to keep walking i asked, so what did you think? started explaining about a solution from unitrends he liked, but it starts at 60k, and then you pay a fee based on the amount of data you have on the unit afterward as a license maintenance, wow, that sounds like extortion to me in the long run, lol, Thomson has us in their grip already with their gofileroom product, I parlayed peaceful and entertained the product as it really is viable and cool, just silly expensive for a house like us imho. Homebrew is how we have gotten by thus far. Thankfully, boss seems to have more faith in me than boss boss and practicality that my original forecast for a solution, hardware and software I did not want to exceed 25k for 6 offices in total, which I'm pretty sure I can do and still have a really solid backup with deduplication for each location individually, same kind of functionality and versatility as tape including easy off site transport, bare metal universal restore, and VM up and ready to emulate a down server for a hell of a lot cheaper than 60k, haven't heard a peep today from either one though...))
