Why does it take so long to restore my Domino mail database?

I backup our Domino mail databases to a 6386-tape device. There are around 450 mail files, which at this time is close to 33 GB. My problem is when I need to restore a mail database; it can take up to two and a half hours to do. The time seems to be getting to the mail file on tape. Does this seem correct or is there a problem?

All of the administrators I've talked to all seem to say the same thing. It appears that you are correct.

This was first published in May 2002