Hey everyone I'm thinking about getting started with tape backups on my Unraid server but I'm not sure what the best way to go about it is.

 

I have a Dell T620 for Unraid and I think these are my options:

• I could get an internal tape drive, but if I did that I wouldn't know how to write data to the tape, would I be able to do that straight from MC or Krusader or would I need to install a Docker container or plugin to let me interface with the drive, or would I need to do something else?
• I could also get an external drive but I'd have the same questions as I do with the internal drive option, how to write data to tapes?
• I could get a tape library - maybe a Dell TL2000 - but I don't know how I'd control that either or get data written onto the tapes & I think this would be a more expensive starting point.

I would be surprised if unraid had drivers for your tape drive. In case it doesn't, your best bet might be to backup from a VM where you have the drivers and the tape drive is passed through to the VM. You will also need to mount your unraid shares inside the VM

As for how to backup, you usually use drive manufacturers software where available. If not, tar was specifically built to archive to tape

I have to wonder about your data size and use case though. Do you have long term snapshot archival requirements? Whenever i think about tape, creating a backup NAS always turns out to be cheaper and simpler option in my mind - but my use case is all about redundency and backups, so a zfs backup with 30 day snapshots is enough for me

Thanks for your input. I'll keep that in mind. It's good to know that I couldn't just control it directly from Unraid without a VM. I'm curious to learn about how to use a tape drive but it's a pretty large financial commitment to get set up in the first place like you're saying too.

6 minutes ago, romain said:

Thanks for your input. I'll keep that in mind. It's good to know that I couldn't just control it directly from Unraid without a VM. I'm curious to learn about how to use a tape drive but it's a pretty large financial commitment to get set up in the first place like you're saying too.

If you do not want to consider a backup server then you might want to look at the economics of how using hard disks plugged in temporarily to receive backups compares to the price of using tapes.