[SGVLUG] Mondo backups on "mondo" tape drives

[Emerson, Tom]

> -----Original Message-----
> Behalf Of Dustin
> On Wed, 19 Oct 2005, Emerson, Tom wrote:
> 
> > (of course, we "should" link this to the SGVLUG site ...
> 
> Yeah, and you know how much time I have for stuff like that. :-)
> 
> But we could have a "Cool Tools" section that has other 
> people's short talks, not just mine.

Strike "could", replace with "do" -- it's already there, awaiting content items :)

[and if you're pressed for time, let me know -- I can copy your site and do the grunt-work of setting it up as an "article"]

> > actually be upwards of 250MB] May be slow as molassass [but] 
> > as you pointed out, this can be done when you're asleep.
> 
> Yes.  The major irritant for me is that even with DVDs a full backup 
> requires swapping discs, so I can't do it overnight.
> 
> > Well, actually, I do need to backup a "network" of machines [...]
> 
> Then maybe Amanda or Bacula is the right solution for you after all.  
> There are other network-oriented systems, though, and I think 
> my notes had a section for them.

the tar/star and similar documentation points out a technique of using rsh or ssh as in "user at site:/dev/rmt", so it boils down to "what's the slowest component?"  It could be the tape drive, the CPU of the system running the drive, the network, the disks, or [and often ultimately the case] the operator swapping tapes...

It depends on whether or not your backup is an "online" or "offline" backup -- "offline" means that you (essentially) cannot use the system while it's backing up [and/or only files that "aren't in use" will be backed up]; while online gives the opportunity to capture files that are open and doesn't otherwise hinder your use of the machine.  One form of "online" would be to use reiser (?) to make a "snapshot" of the partition, then copy that to tape -- you're only downtime is the time it takes to make the actual snapshot.

[more later -- lunch beckons...]

Tom