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Tecmar
Travan NS20 External SCSI Tape Drive
Reviewed by: Howard
Carson, send
e-mail
Made
by: Tecmar Technologies, go
to the web site
Requires: SCSI
connection, backup software (NovaNet Backup version 7, Seagate
Backup Exec, NT Backup, Tecmar's ditto tools, etc.)
MSRP: US$649
(internal), US$769 (external)
(Ed.
Note: reviewed in 1999. This is a follow-up
- long term test results)
The original
Tecmar Travan NS20 review was published a few months before
this follow up and is available on the web site here.
We originally tested
the Tecmar
Travan NS20 External SCSI tape
drive unit over a period of 10 days. This follow-up review
was assembled after 3 months of continuous testing under
some very stringent conditions.
Tecmar's market positioning of the new Travan NS (network
series) 20GB tape drives hasn't changed since the original
review. The drives have the highest capacity and fastest
transfer rates of any Travan drives available. Delivering
20GB of compressed capacity at a transfer rate of more than
2MB per second, the new drives are aimed at the popular,
fast growing class of Windows NT servers and workstations.
During the 12 week follow-up period we used the Travan NS20
to perform 3-a-week incremental server backups of approximately
8GB each. Using 9 Imation Travan NS20GB tapes we created
a rotating series of three generations of uncompressed backup
sets. At the end of each week (12:00 A.M. every Sunday),
a full 16-20GB compressed backup was performed on the same
document server. The weekly backup was the one we archived
off-site.
The drive was connected through an Adaptec 2940UW SCSI adapter
to one of our primary research document file servers - a
dual Pentium II 350MHz machine with 500MB of RAM, running
Windows NT 4.0 (SP4). We accessed the drive via Seagate Backup
Exec (which is bundled with the drive Travan NS20) and alternately
with NT Backup which is integrated with Windows NT Server.
The Tecmar Travan NS20 is targeted primarily at Networking
VARs and System Integrators who are building or configuring
PC servers running Microsoft Windows NT. Windows NT servers
are an economical and reliable new choice for small offices
and departmental networks. As the average cost of these entry
level servers is scaled down, higher priced 4mm and 8mm storage
solutions become less affordable and therefore less acceptable.
The need for a low cost, high performance solution is clear,
and Tecmar believes the NS20 is 'it'. Obviously, a busy research
office with an NT network can also make extremely good use
of this drive. We also recommend the Tecmar Travan NS20 drive
as a backup solution for busy graphics agency network servers
running NT, and most other small to medium-sized NT network
servers.
Cons: As in the original review, we couldn't find much wrong
with the drive. As usual with tape drives of all kinds, the
tape setup, positioning, and alignment contortions performed
automatically whenever you load a new tape, take far too
long. Our original intention was to do this long-term test
using NovaNet Backup 7. Unfortunately, our IS manager (Jack
Reikel, who helped out with the original NovaNet Backup and
Travan NS20 testing) did not have enough time to install
NovaNet Backup on the active Proton Research Network in the
time since the software was reviewed earlier this year in
CompuNotes (issue #149, April 25, 1999). Since nothing goes
onto the active Proton Research network until it's fully
tested, we'll try to bring you a follow-up after installing
NovaNet Backup 7 on the active Proton network later this
year.
Pros: As Tecmar's ads state, the Tecmar Travan NS20 provides
much needed price and performance benchmarks for the extremely
fast growing Windows NT server market, and proves it by operating
at the same speed as pricey, top quality, high capacity (70GB)
DLT drives. The drive is well-made, operates quietly, and
treats NS20 tapes with great care. The combinations of Seagate
Backup Exec or NT Backup and the Tecmar Travan NS20 are excellent.
We're big fans of SCSI drives and we originally rated this
backup powerhouse at the top of our list. We're pleased to
report that it also appears to take a terrific beating over
longer periods of time, performs high-speed backups as reliably
as anything on the market, and should become a network standard
if Tecmar pushes it hard enough. Highly recommended.
Letters
to the Editor are welcome and occasionally abused in public.
Send e-mail to: whine@kickstartnews.com
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