Best software for LTO 4 on a Mac?

[Rob Gardner]

Having studied up on the relivent thread here, I am about to make the following LTO4 hardware purchase for use on an Itel 8 core Mac:

1) HP LTO4 ULtrium SAS Half Height 1760
tape drive (external, desktop model)

2) ATTOTECH EXPRESS SAS HBA and cable

My problem is the software purchase. BRU PE seems to be getting very good comments on this forum, but the tech guys at both vendors bidding on the hardware warned me away from BRU, without being specific (just calling it "troublesome and not something we can reccommend". The alternative suggested was Archiware's PresSTORE.

Can anyone give me a comparative review of the two, or any thoughts at all? Archiware's PresSTORE is more expensive and seems more complicated to me. Any thoughts at all would be appreciated.

Any good or bad experiences with BRU-PE? Same with PreSTORE?

Any feedback would help. I expect to use this to archive a project just completed on Red (6tb's) and for business data archiving.

Thanks

[warwickt]

Hi Rob, you search the forums you'll find a lot of stuff out there. Keyword searches are: LTO4, Ultrium, SAS. My experience with the BRU-PE is extremely good and I believe for the small to medium business that does content creation using MacOS X that this is the only way to go currently.

Feel free to PM me if you like as I have two working configurations for MacOS X using Tolisgroup's BRU-PE, HP and ATTOTech.

Hope that helps

W

[Ben Holmes]

My problem is the software purchase. BRU PE seems to be getting very good comments on this forum, but the tech guys at both vendors bidding on the hardware warned me away from BRU, without being specific (just calling it "troublesome and not something we can reccommend".
Thanks

Whilst knowing nothing about either products, I would note that such comments from vendors often translate to "it's not something we stock/know about/get a decent margin/kickback on". Usually it's the latter one. I rarely take any spec given to me by a vendor - it's up to YOU to specify the equipment you require, not salesmen.

Apologies if you find this unsolicited advice unhelpful - it's just based on long experience of the above.

[Tim Jones]

My problem is the software purchase. BRU PE seems to be getting very good comments on this forum, but the tech guys at both vendors bidding on the hardware warned me away from BRU, without being specific (just calling it "troublesome and not something we can reccommend". The alternative suggested was Archiware's PresSTORE.
I'd be very interested in knowing who those vendors are. I find it interesting when a vendor touts a product that sells for 3x to 10x our price and claims our "lower margin" products are "troublesome and not something we can recommend" while then recommending the more expensive product.

Here's the solution - we offer a fully functional 30 day demo of the BRU products. BRU PE works out of the box with your hardware and the drive and HBA you mention above. Give BRU PE a look and I am quite certain that you will recognize both the ease of use and reliability that is provided.

In fact (and I'll get yelled at by the marketing team for announcing early :P ), starting later this week you will be able to order the whole "ball of wax" from TOLIS Group as a bundle - ATTO SAS HBA, HP tape drive, SAS cable, and BRU PE (or BRU Server). This makes it easier to get a single quote for your entire setup. Plus, you get support from a single source, as well.

Tim

[Rob Gardner]

Thanks for the comments, all. I did get some in-depth advice from two forum members off-line who were outspoken in their support of BRU-PE.

I would not have been concerned if both vendors in different parts of the country had not come up with the same negative comment, but it is true that these guys are out to make a profit.

And to be honest, a lot of the positive information about BRE was coming from Tim Jones, who does have a vested interest (helpful and charming guy though he is). But in any event, I am going to go with the BRU-PE software that looked so good in the first place after reading the long threads on this subject here on Reduser.

Thanks again for the help.

Tim, is it possible to get a package price from you for the whole shebang?

Rob Gardner

[Neil Sadwelkar]

I've heard good things about Bru and the move to make a package including drive and the works is welcome.

Bru even 'supported' me with answers before I've bought the product.

What I'd like to know is how do Bro backups relate to/are compatible with other backups. For instance one common form of backup to LTO is via Windows backup. Restore has to be through Windows backup too.

Can Bru read/write to these?

So, while Bru is a great solution to backup Red or P2 or even XDCamEx files, one may need to consider compatibility if one needs to exchange backups with clients or other post houses.

Sort of like Firewire or eSATA drives can be read and written and exchanged with anyone, can Bru backups too?

Of course, if one needs to backup digital camera data and then wish to restore or access it one one's own system, and that happens to be a Mac, the there's nothing like Bru in that price band.

[framegrabber]

What I'd like to know is how do Bro backups relate to/are compatible with other backups.


I'd like to know that too as I'm doing a research on an archiving solution for our mixed environment consisting of linux and mac machines.

Felix

[gbalaji]

Install Win XP / Vista under Bootcamp and use the default Backup software under Windows operating system. Its safe and future proof from software upgrades and we are using it happily here in Chennai, India.

[Shane Betts]

We have a vendor recommended solution that cost a lot more than Bru (Time Navigator) and I can tell you my experiences have been just awful. Not recommending anything specific (still trying to work out which way to jump myself) but just not to necessarily go with what your vendor recommends or by the old "expensive is better" route. Evaluate, evaluate, evaluate.

[Dave Blackham]

Bru server and Bru PE are both good. Company support is also good.

Nope, I don't work for them, just use their software.

[Jeremy Neish]

We bought Bru PE, and are a bit underwhelmed by the lack of features and poor UI design. We've been re-considering Retrospect now that the new version seems to be stabilizing. However, we haven't come to any solid conclusions yet.

[Rainer Fritz]

Tim... the bundles are looking interesting. One question:
I want to connect on my SAS card also a external RAID. Will it work to use the R380 Card instead of the H380 and can I configure it that way, that I can connect a RAID and the LTO drive at the same time and copy from the RAID to the LTO drive? That would be perfect.... to connect LTO or a RAID would be also fine.....

[Jeff Kilgroe]

We bought Bru PE, and are a bit underwhelmed by the lack of features and poor UI design. We've been re-considering Retrospect now that the new version seems to be stabilizing. However, we haven't come to any solid conclusions yet.

What features are you looking for? The UI could indeed use a little pizazz, but it's straight-forward and simple. Compared to Retrospect, ATempo and others, it's pretty friendly. If you want a more robust solution with more features, check out BRU Server.

I've tried 'em all, BRU is the best on the Mac right now. Even if EMC gets their act together and gets Retrospect to stabilize, they still need to drastically increase performance and the robustness of their archive format. If you've ever really used Retrospect, you should be far more underwhelmed by it.

Other options are to move your backup system over to Windows or Linux to gain more software options. I like Amanda on Linux and it has OSX, Windows, Linux, etc.. client software.

ATempo Time Manager is good on OSX too, but it's not very user friendly and is far more in-depth than what most people here are looking for.

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Tim... the bundles are looking interesting. One question:
I want to connect on my SAS card also a external RAID. Will it work to use the R380 Card instead of the H380 and can I configure it that way, that I can connect a RAID and the LTO drive at the same time and copy from the RAID to the LTO drive? That would be perfect.... to connect LTO or a RAID would be also fine.....

That will work just fine, both RAID and LTO at the same time. I'm using the ATTO H680 card and I have the LTO connected to one SAS port and a 4x eSATA fan-out cable on the other SAS port and I regularly connect eSATA and SAS devices and I've backed them up to the LTO.

[Hans von Sonntag]

I've tried 'em all, BRU is the best on the Mac right now. Even if EMC gets their act together and gets Retrospect to stabilize, they still need to drastically increase performance and the robustness of their archive format. If you've ever really used Retrospect, you should be far more underwhelmed by it.


I use tape (LTO) on a regular basis, there is no other viable alternative. Nevertheless there is no software on OSX out there which thoroughly satisfies me. I used Retrospect 6.x for 2 years and it was not only tedious to use but also created backup sets that were corrupt. Much fun. I then changed to BRU when they came out with PE. Their application is light years better and does the job, although I don't manage to use it in incremential mode. What it does: creating reliably restorable backups with an easy to understand interface - not a matter of course in the world of backups.

Hans