I have tapes as my last line of defence (ZFS snapshots, backups to NAS, online are my earlier lines of defence). The hardware itself is relatively simple but (

I have tapes as my last line of defence (ZFS snapshots, backups to NAS, online are my earlier lines of defence). The hardware itself is relatively simple but (at least in my experience - I tried quite a few options but they were all missing at least one key feature) there's no good "set and forget" software solution out there in the same way as there is for online backups so you're going to spend a long time scripting it all and tweaking it properly. You can build a solution on top of whichever other tools fit your needs that way. I have a set of scripts which create my backups in single large files on disk ready to be spooled out, then I use mbuffer to actually put the data onto tape. In terms of hardware, 1 or 2 generation old LTO drives are often available for a decent price in good condition on eBay. You'll also need either an SAS or Fibre Channel interface depending on what drive you buy. As far as I can tell they're pretty much all supported by Linux these days. Given the complexity of scripting and potential for user errors, testing that you can restore properly is pretty well essential, of course.