From: terry@phoenix.ocf.llnl.gov (Terry Heidelberg x24154)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.aix
Subject: Re: Letago Networker on AIX
Date: 15 Dec 92 02:57:11 GMT
Organization: LLNL

Douglas L.Acker [acker@wg2.waii.com] writes:

>We use it extensively ... with a Comtec (aka Lago aka StorageTek) Tape
>Library  (270GB)  with  two  drives.   Works real good for lights outs
>backups ..and restores are much much faster.

>We  use  a  Sun  Server  (the  Legato  guys  are the Sun engineers who
>inveneted RPC, NFS etc ...).

>Somethings to keep in mind .... with a AIX  server,  the  tape  drives
>needs special microcode in them, so if you dont have  an  IBM  drives,
>you might be "screwed" (Legato sits above the OS as an application).

>The database files get huge ... we keep 2 months of  database  history
>files for about 40GB worth of data ... the  database  size  is  around
>2gb...

>i.e.  figure  2.5%  of  the information you want to remember is in the
>database.

>The  X-windows interface is a bit quirky and their are some minor bugs
>that  are  only  cosmetic  ....  but  for  the  actual backup/recovery
>subsystem,its rock solid.

I would not use the phrase "rock solid" in connection with Legato Networker
on our cluster of 18+2 550s.     We configured one 550 as a server, dumping
to a stack of 4 8mm tapes.      We were afraid of the unreliability of
Networker (we demo'ed it), but couldn't find anything else in the market
that compared, and we needed improved net-backup REAL bad, so we bought it
with crossed fingers.   Well, the product has had periods of apparent
stability, but it has also failed on many occasions, causing us to have to
catch up by running backups during the day (users are not fond of this).
We have reported many of these problems to Legato, and they have been
friendly although a bit distant and not quick to fix problems.    I get the
idea that Sun is their main ballgame, and the AIX platform gets 3rd-class
treatment.    I've complained about this to them (at LISA, for
example), but so far, no detectable improvement has been noted.

The current index files takes up 850MB, for approximately 3*18=54MB of
backed-up filesystems.    Our backup guys have to watch the indexs, or
they will fill up the filesystem we have reserved for them.

The Motif interface has indeed been buggy, and we have obtained patched 
versions via anon-ftp from Legato, and some problems were fixed, but others
were caused, so we had to back off most of the patched programs.   I get
the feeling that Leagato's QA is not up to par.    When we initially were
configuring Networker, we tried to use a parallelism (simultaneous clients
dumping their files to the server) factor that was too high, and this
caused the (networker) server to get so bogged-down slow that it soon
had to be rebooted.    Don't push this past 4, we were told (although the
product supports 10 and the docs didn't warn sufficiently about problems if
you set it too high).  

We continue to get failures that we can't explain, and the time we spend on
Legato is a drag, in that we hoped the automated backup system would save 
us time, not cause us more headaches!    I suspect that there is inadequate
network error recovery/handling in the Networker system.

Summary: Legato on RS/6000 AIX is the kind of product that you basically
like, and that you hope the vendor gets right soon now, but that is fairly
black-boxish, fails more than one would like, has fairly sluggish support,
and can burn more of your time than you planned on.   Sigh.    Who said
that things would be easy?

Terry
Newsgroups: comp.unix.aix