Re: [OT] Backup solutions
"Bob Paige" <bobman@iname.com> writes:
> I've been running my debian system without a backup for about a year
> now. I understand the need for backup (hence this message) so please,
> no assaults for not using one.
>
> Questions:
> 1) what is better for backup, tape, or CD? (I already have a CD burner)
> 2) if tape, what is a good/inexpensive product to use?
> 3) what software works best?
>
> I did some googling and found Linux-Backup.net (and others). It
> appears the state of backup for Linux is to use tar or afio and backup
> entire images. I haven't found examples of backing up multi-GB
> archives that span multiple tapes/CDRs.
>
> I'm imagining a baseline backup with periodic (maybe weekly, maybe
> more often) incrementals. I can easily copy my relevant files (3GB+)
> to a bunch of CDs, but then how do I keep track of newer backup copies
> that should replace older versions? I am looking for software smart
> enough to do this.
>
> Opinions?
First opinion, don't start a new thread by replying to an already
existing thread. In this case you replied on the "debian 2.0: some
intruder broke in" thread and changed the "Subject". Just about any
reasonable mail client (MUA) is threaded these days and I saw your
topic only by chance because I was reading the original thread. If I,
or anyone using a threaded mail client, had been ignoring the original
thread your topic wouldn't have appeared. This is independent of the
"Subject", mostly, and uses the "References" header, which you didn't
modify. Back to the question...
Tape is the best method, IMO, but you have to have some spare money
laying around if you don't already have a tape drive. If you do decide
to get a tape drive check out eBay for pretty reasonable 4mm drives,
and probably other formats. Of course a lot of them are SCSI so if you
don't already have a SCSI adapter that's another consideration. DDS2
tapes are pretty cheap.
Given that, I like afbackup. Like amanda it can do network backups,
and as far as I can tell everything else Amanda can do. When I first
looked at Amanda it had some, to me, weird limitation. Something like
having to fit all of the data for a run onto one tape? That's fine if
you've got a big tape drive, but my little DDS2 4mm drive won't fit a
full backup of my primary system onto one tape. afbackup has no such
limitation.
The one drawback of afbackup, and it's getting better all the time, is
documentation. When I first started using it it was horrid. I don't
think the author was a native english speaker, or was just a bad
writer, and it showed. However it's gotten better with each release
and is now not too bad. I'm not complaining, because I didn't do
anything to help make it better. The software, in contrast, works
fantastically. Never a problem, and I have had to do plenty of
recoveries.
Gary
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