SENS Backup Services

The SENS backup systems perform unattended, automated backups of SENS servers and Unix-based clients on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis.

For information on backup policies and retention periods, click here.

For an interactive form to request file restoration, click here.

Hardware

SENS utilizes multiple tape library ("jukebox") devices to back up a large quantity of data on a nightly basis. One of these devices is the SPARC Storage Library, which is a 10-slot tape jukebox with two drive mechanisms and a barcode reader. We use 160-meter 8mm tapes with a compressed data capacity of approximately 14GB, giving us the ability to back up 140GB of data on an unattended basis.

Software

SENS backup systems utilize the EMC Networker software (formerly Legato Networker, aka Solstice Backup). This software, which completely automates the backup process, provides a high degree of accuracy, and verifies all data written to the tapes. Use of barcode readers insures that the proper tapes are in the drives, so that older data doesn't get overwritten. Multiple tape drives can be used simultaneously, maximizing throughput on the SCSI interface. Tape indexes are kept on-line, and a GUI-based recovery program makes retrieving old data easier and less error-prone than previous systems.