Ben Lutgens wrote: > On Tue, May 28, 2002 at 02:50:02PM -0500, Raymond Norton wrote: > >>I need to implement a reliable backup system using tape. So far I have not >>tried installing a tape drive, or scsi card on my Redhat box. Before I >>start spending money I was hoping to get recommendations on what hardware >>to use. It would be ideal if the same system could backup 2 Linux servers, >>and one NT box. I don't want to flood this list with oodles of questions, >>so it would be great if I could communicate with someone via email through >>the install and config process. > For software use amanda, it's free, easy to use and will do what you need. > Basically you install the amanda software on each machine. The main server > asks for the data that the planner thinks it needs from each disk on the > client nodes (the server itself can be a client) you set the priority and > compression level for each disk that needs to be backed up. It stores that > info on a holding disk then dumps it to tape when it has a chance. > Restoring is very cool. You go to the client machine, login as root, run > amrecover with a couple options and it drops you to an ftp like shell, you > can cd around and select the files and directories you want. then > essentially you tell it "go" and it says "Hrm, you need tape $FOO" you put > in tape $FOO and tell it "Yahtzee" and it starts restoring your stuff. I too have found tape drives to be rather nice. Personally I use a DLT 4000 drive, 20/40GB per tape. However I found amanda has what I consider a big limitation. Each backup goes on a separate tape. I tend to like to do a full backup on say Sunday night and incrementals the rest of the week and put it all on one tape. This is not possible with amanda. I've found arkeia to do a very nice job of this. It supports client/server operation and is free for personal use. -- Jon Schewe | http://mtu.net/~jpschewe | jpschewe at mtu.net For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. - Romans 8:38-39