[SGVLUG] Mondo backups on "mondo" tape drives

[Dustin]

On Tue, 18 Oct 2005, Jeff Carlson wrote:

> Emerson, Tom wrote:

> > Any suggestions for programs that "really do understand" that people
> > might really use a tape drive, and it just might happen to have
> > "sufficient" capacity to back up the world and then some on one
> > "reel"?

Well, at the bottom of my Mondo Rescue notes, I put a great number of
links to backup programs/systems/scripts:

http://www.laurences.net/Dustin/Computer/UnixQuickies/mondorescue.html

Given how much time I wasted assembling it and not finding another list as
complete, it may actually be the most complete list on the web.

There are a lot of scripts which essentially just provide a fancy
interface to standard unix archivers like tar and cpio, and so by
definition are tape-friendly.  For example, take a look at flexbackup

http://flexbackup.sourceforge.net/

which claims to support tape well (I have no tape drive, so I never tried
it--kinda wish I had one just for fun).  From the flexbackup readme:

----------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTES - WHEN USING TAPES

 The first file on a tape is the "index key" (see "flexbackup -toc").
 Therefore, use the -num switch to read specific archives.  e.g, to read the
 first backup archive on a tape: "flexbackup -list -num 1".  Otherwise you
 can position it yourself with "mt fsf 1 ; flexbackup -list ... "

 Level 0 backups of "all" assume a new tape - will trigger
 tape retension and erasure.  Other backups move tape to
 current end of data and start the backup there.

 Backups rewind the tape when done.  Other operations leave it where it 
is.

 If you split the "all" level 0 backup into sets, tape numbers start at 0.

 If you set device to "host:/dev/tapedevice", you can use remote tape
 drives (via rsh/ssh)

 I suggest using "afio" for tapes, especially if you want compression.  It
 compresses one file at a time, so an error will not corrupt your entire
 archive like with other types.  If you are using on-disk backups, the
 archive type doesn't matter as much.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

> If I were you, I'd install amanda either from source, package from an 
> earlier release, or build an RPM of the latest release.  Well, the last 
> one assuming you know how to build an RPM, of course.

Hmm.  I've not used either, but studying the docs convinced me that if I 
needed something that heavy-duty, I'd probably use Bacula instead of 
Amanda:

http://www.bacula.org/

Looked a lot less painful.  Well, at least Amanda has a reputation of
needing pretty full-contact administration.

However, if Tom doesn't plan to use the network features, or if he's going 
to mirror the other machines with rsync and then just back up the machine 
hosting the mirror, does he need packages like that?  Dunno.

> Heh...  New guy here.  Hey Mike, it's FINALLY working!

Welcome, Jeff.  I wondered where you'd gone to.

> > Equally ironic, SuSE's own Yast program has a "system backup" module

Heh.  Your first mistake was probably using some tarted-up pretty 
graphical thing. :-)

Dustin