[H-GEN] Any recommendations for Tape Backup software ?

[James McPherson - PTS Engineer]

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Patrick Nichols wrote:
>>>Willie Yeo wrote:
>>>>    I dug out my ole' SCSI Tape Backup unit, and am thinking of
>>>>hooking it up to my Linux box.
>>Sarah Hollings wrote:
>>>http://www.amanda.org/
>>>http://www.backupcentral.com/amanda.html
> David Jericho said:
>>If you're wanting to play with a tape drive, and do something useful
>>with it as well, check out Bacula. http://www.bacula.org/
> There is also the tried and true method of writing your own custom backup
> scripts.  It really isn't that difficult.  Of course you will probably
> have comments at the top of the file similar to this one I just pulled off
> the production server here :)
> #!/bin/sh
> # backup.sh created 6/6/03 by Patrick Nichols
> #
> # This is a rudimentary backup script to get us through until we get this
> # all configured properly. :)
> #
> # That means that it will probably be used for years to come with much
> # hacking up.
> After a while it just evolved into something useful.  Now it is at the
> point of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".


Having just finished teaching a course on problem solving and
decision making where one of the modules is potential problem
analysis -- who bothers to test / verify that their backups
actually work? I know from experience that the majority of
sysadmins _do not_ verify their backups -- it bites them and
me when they call in the middle of the night....

My co-presenter knows (firsthand experience due to providing
oncall support) of a company which lost _6_ years of data
because they failed to test their sysadmin's backup scripts.

6 years of "yes, the backup was successful" but this message
was printed whether the script worked or no due to a logic bug.


Save yourself some stress and think about both sides of the
backup picture before going on to the next problem.



James C. McPherson
--
Pacrim PTS Engineer            828 Pacific Highway
                                Gordon NSW
Sun Microsystems Australia     2072




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