Justin Fishbaugh, About a year ago, we did exactly what you outlined in your message. Now every evening, Retrospect runs on a G3/400 and backs up data from the NT server as well as the acquisition and analysis Macs and PCs. The data is short-term archived to DVD-RAM. For long-term archival, the data from DVD-RAM is written to CD-r (two copies). Some trials and tribulations follow. The NT server has just one 10GB disk, partitioned into 4 smaller disks (NT 4.0 can't handle such a big disk in one piece). Installing NT 4.0 Service Pack 4 (SP4) was not easy; first you install NT 4.0, then apply the "Service Pack" updates and "optional" software (like the internet software, including the ftp server) in the specified order, then read all sorts of technical notes from the maze-like Microsoft website when things go wrong. After your 3rd install, you should have a running system. (Hopefully Windows NT 2000 isn't as much of a "beta" software as NT4SP4 was, but I wouldn't hold my breath.) Since NT uses AppleTalk to communicate with Mac clients, and our university does not support AppleTalk routing, we knew we would have trouble with our remote sites. I chose DAVE software to get around this roadblock, but it was expensive. Fetch and ftp will also work, but you will lose the CellQuest signature. We also purchased Netscape Calendar Server (NCS) for NT for our online scheduling. This system just became active, and we haven't had much trouble using the software. The bigger problem was installing and setting it up. It turned out that the version of NCS we originally purchased was not compatible with NT4SP4; it wanted SP3, and did not "play nicely" with IIS (NT's internet services). Sun/Netscape finally released a newer version for SP4. I chose NT over unix because I thought NT would be easier to set up. In hindsight, I realize that this is probably not the case. Cost and compatibility were other factors. However, Linux still looks tempting ... and even Mac OS X may be a contender now. Retrospect works well, but we're still having difficulties reaching a remote site because of a firewall. I talked to Dantz and the local IT responsible for the firewall, but evidently this is not as easy to fix as I was lead to believe. In order to keep the CellQuest signature, you will have to mount the NT server as an AppleShare drive on the Mac, so make sure AppleTalk can make the trip between your Mac and NT server. We use a combination of DVD-RAM and CD-r because we already had the CD-r drive. I wanted a backup drive for Retrospect that used large-capacity re-writable media, but I personally don't like tape, so I got the DVD-RAM drive as part of a new G3. It should be noted, however, that DVD-RAM has a capacity of 5.2GB per disk, but only 2.6GB per each SIDE of the disk. Unless your DVD-RAM drive has two read/write heads (if such a drive even exists) you will only be able to access 2.6GB at any one time. (You unmount the disk, and physically flip it over to access the other 2.6GB.) Eric >Greetings, > >We are in the process of switching to a larger and faster data server >(Windows NT) to store our flow cytometry data. We will be using either one >or two 9GB drives. I am wrestling with long term archive options that >currently include 4mm DAT tape, CD-RW/CD-R or DVD-RAM. I am leaning toward >DVD-RAM because of the 5.2GB capacity and longevity of the media. The down >side is that DVD-RAM is not a mature technology like CD-RW/CD-R or 4mm DAT. > We'll probably install it on a fast MAC in the lab (the server is in >another building) and use Retrospect backup software so that we can retain >Cellquest file attributes without Filetyping when we pull archived files >from the disk. The last threads in the flow e-mail archives relating to >DVD are dated 1997. Has anyone used this storage technology since then? >Thanks. > > > > >------------------------------------------------ >| Justin Fishbaugh | >| University of Iowa | >| Flow Cytometry Facility | >| 48 EMRB | >| Iowa City, IA 52242 | >| | >| justin-fishbaugh@uiowa.edu | >| http://www.medicine.uiowa.edu/flowcytometry/ | >------------------------------------------------ /\/\/\_ Eric Van Buren, aa9080@wayne.edu \ \ \ Karmanos Cancer Institute and Immunology & Microbiology \_^_/ Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, USA
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