Dell is now marketing a removable hard drive solution for backups called the RD1000. This is a removable, hard drive solution that consists of a plug-in slot on the front of the server and a removable hard drive in a plastic cartridge. Cartridges can be purchased with up to a 300GB capacity.

 I am thinking about using this for ServerProtect Server backup purposes.

1. Has anyone used this hardware with ShadowProtect Server? What is your experience?

2. If I wanted to set up a system where I came in every morning, removed the removable harde drive, what would you suggest for a backup/retention policy?

3. What happens if I switch the backup media while the ShadowProtect service is running?

4. Is there a problem if the media is removed between the time that the last full is performed and the next incremental?

5. What happens if I insert a media from the previous week that includes incremental images that are no longer relevant? Must I manually remove these old images?

 Thanks for your assistance.

We have bought ShadowProtect three weeks ago (v3.3 German) and are using it on our Dell PowerEgde 840 in combination with the RD1000. We own two 160GB removeable drives for the RD1000.

 Now I am also interessted in some answears:

ClydeB:

2. If I wanted to set up a system where I came in every morning, removed the removable harde drive, what would you suggest for a backup/retention policy?

4. Is there a problem if the media is removed between the time that the last full is performed and the next incremental?

Many of our clients have RD 1000's. They work very well. I will tell you that we do NOT recommend them any more for a few reasons.

  a. The Drives are in a proprietary format. So you can only use the RD 1000 compatible drives which are very expensive change out when you need to go to more storage.

   b. Big issue. The drives are not as portable as you would think. You must have the Dell RD1000 drivers installed to be able to read from the drives.

So now we just recommend a high quality external USB drives. Very Portable, large storage, and not expensive.

For auto ejecting the RD1000 Drives, SP does not have this function built in, so we have a script that runs a 7:00 AM to eject the drive.

I hope this helps. 

cosys:

For auto ejecting the RD1000 Drives, SP does not have this function built in, so we have a script that runs a 7:00 AM to eject the drive.

 Could you tell me the Script?
 

REM Eject Dell RD1000 Drive
@echo off
cls
c:\windows\system32\rsm.exe eject /LF"DELL RD1000" /astart
exit

Thx for the script. But after I start the [rsm.exe eject /LF"DELL RD1000" /astart] Command the RD1000 drive will not eject.

After hopplesly trying to eject the damn RD1000 Drive I had the ShadowProtect Service under suspicion. After deactivating the Service the eject command works as it should:
 

REM Eject Dell RD1000 Drive
@echo off
cls
NET STOP "ShadowProtect Dienst"
c:\windows\system32\rsm.exe eject /LF"Dell RD1000" /astart
NET START "ShadowProtect Dienst"
exit

You might try completely exiting the UI.  You can do this by right clicking on the tray icon and selecting exit.  Sometimes the UI keeps a handle open looking for images on a destination. 

Scott
STC

Scooter:

You might try completely exiting the UI

The GUI is not active.