RE: Backup Software Question

Subject: RE: Backup Software Question
From: Sak Wathanasin (sw@network-analysis.ltd.uk)
Date: Mon Jul 30 2001 - 04:45:00 EDT

In reply to Chris Herrmann's message of the 30/07/2001 at 09:06 +1000,

>Retrospect was one of the reasons why our mac users abandoned the macintosh
>server and went linux - too much trouble with it, although I'm not convinced
>that at least part of that wasn't a user problem...

You've got to be kidding: I set up my Retro backup scripts 4 or 5 yrs
ago and apart from minor adjustments (replaced DAT with DLT, added
new clients etc) I'm essentially running the same scripts. I've
fought Amanda, straight dump/restore or tar/untar, Veritas and none
of them comes close.

Currently I use Amanda to backup my Linux and Solaris and I have to
tweak something every week or so. Its worst failing is that it
doesn't append more than 1 backup session to a tape, so some days a
backup tape will only contain a few 100 MBs of (incremental) backup.
V expensive when the tape is a DLT cartridge. And of course, when you
come round to reusing the tape, it just rewrites from the front, so
you end up with what I call "answering machine tape syndrome": the
first 10% of the tape is written over and over and gets worn out
while the remaining 90% is virgin tape.

When it comes to restoring from the backup, Retro's snap-shots makes
this really simple. And remember: your users don't thank you for
backing up their files, only for restoring them. 

-- 
Sak Wathanasin
Network Analysis Limited

Internet: sw@network-analysis.ltd.uk
Phone: (+44) 24 76 41 99 96        Mobile: (+44) 79 70 75 19 12 
Fax: (+44) 24 76 69 06 90

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