TapeBackups

Tape Backup Services

ACCRE provides tape backup services to Vanderbilt departments and laboratories regardless of whether they also use the cluster. This is an additional service separate from the backup of /home and /data space on the cluster (see the cluster policy on disk quotas and backups).

The True incremental Backup System (TiBS) is used to backup data for these departments and labs. Currently a SpectraLogic T950 Tape Library is used to store backup data and is located in a different data center than the ACCRE cluster for disaster protection. An important advantage of TiBS is that it minimizes the time and network resources required for backups, even full backups. After an initial full backup, TiBS performs incremental backups from the client. To create subsequent full backups, an incremental backup is taken from the client. Then, on the server side, all incrementals since the last full backup are merged into the previous full backup to create a new full backup. This takes the load off the client machine and network. The integrity of the previous full backup is also verified by this process. Backup data is stored in a fault tolerant manner so the rare data integrity flaw can be corrected. TiBS support is available for all current operating systems. Please contact ACCRE Administration for more details.

The terms of this service are covered by the Service Level Agreement, which can be found through SkyVU.