What can users do to increase backup tape life?
As crazy as it sounds, the first thing users need to do is read the tape drive manual and see what the manufacturer suggests for proper media handling. Also, track where you got the media. Sometimes you can come across a bad batch and if you track where the tapes came from you can proactively remove those tapes before running into problems. The most important thing you can do, however, is to minimize shoeshining. And, in my opinion, it’s impossible to design a backup system that goes directly to tape in any large environment. If you haven’t already, investigate using disk to stage data before sending it to tape. The best thing you can do for your backup system is to match the speed of the tape to the speed of the pipe. This will minimize shoeshining, thereby minimizing the number of passes across the read/write head.
