PresSTORE - Anyone using this?

[messenger82]

We are moving toward a disk to disk setup where one SAN volume backs up to another. We are a video shop with a small quantity of large files. Our current back up solution is me, finder, and a drag n drop marathon on Fridays. I've looked at Bakbone and Atempo and think they are pricey for a relatively simple disk-disk solution. But I'm also of the mindset you get what you pay for.

has anyone used or is using PresSTORE? Can I get an opinion?

Thanks!

[Darmajani]

We do exactly this, but just use a cheap little application called Synchronize Pro. We have both SAN's mounted on one computer. It works like a charm!

[abstractrude]

no tape?

[messenger82]

Nope, no tape. We could afford either near line or off line backups but not both. So we went near line with the RAIDs mounted on a dedicated switch with a seperate failover MDC in another room (hopefully the whole building won't burn down if there's a fire).

Darmajani, I'll give Synchronize Pro a shot, thanks for the suggestion.

[matx]

I've always used shell scripts with rsync for disk to disk backups... It's simple to roll your own backup script.

Or you could use Carbon Copy Cloner. I've seen it used for Xsan (it uses rsync as its internal mechanism, I believe).

-x

[matx]

[macalex101]

I use PSyncX which is a GUI for psync. Works brilliantly and simply. Have used Synchronize Pro and found file corruption. Use PsyncX for Production SAN to Backup SAN over point to point aggregated ethernet.

Use PresSTORE for backing Production SAN up to tape. Works very well for what it does.

[Darmajani]

I am curious, what corruption did you find with Synchronize Pro. I have 2 active volumes that I backup the active projects using it each night. The total space of my Backup volume is about 30TB. I have yet to find any corrupted files and it seems to work great. I'd love to hear of your thoughts of using PsyncX over Synchronize Pro.

[macalex101]

Sounds like we have very similar scenarios. We found Sync Pro gave tons of errors in the log - I have to confess I don't remember exactly what as it was many months ago - and the files that errored couldn't be opened on the backup volume. I use PsyncX largely because I found it cheap, does what it says it does without error and it suited our needs when we got it. In a few weeks we will be looking seriously at ATempo to replace both PsyncX and PresSTORE

[MattZ]

I have recently setup PresSTORE synchronize for a client, - They had a 45TB xsan that we are syncing to a 55TB concatenated disk for near line. Works like a charm and over a single 4gb fibre link we transferred the data in less than 50hrs.

[ogminlo]

There's also the cvcpSync script that was posted a while back. But I guess that only works if everything is on one MDC...

[messenger82]

[messenger82]

Thanks for all of the feedback on synchronize pro, with questionable feedback I think I'll skip this one.

I'll give psynx a shot too since it's graphical. The command line utilities are difficult to adopt, I have a non technical staff who have to handle my workload while I'm out the command line scares them (and me while they're using it). I hope to take a vacation some day and to do that I'll have to have a graphically interfaceable app the other staff can deal with.

For those of you that saw a Presstore booth, did anyone happen to grab a business card? All of the contact info I can find for them has them international and I'm having a time getting up with a rep.

[jpaquin]

We actually are selling PresStore now for xsan environments, as well as other environments. Their interface is very intuitive and easy to use, and to be honest this is the first backup/sync/archive solution that has really impressed our techs with ease of use, cost, and quality of support from Archiware. I PM'd some more info to you about contact information, I hope you find it helpful.

- Jason

[matx]