[lug] Backups Again

[Ferdinand P. Schmid]

Here are my 2 cents:
We were using Seagate Backup Exec for WindowsNT (single server edition).  In
those days (1997 to Jan 1999) they still had reliability issues.  While some
of those issues may have been related to our hardware (our server was
purchased form Advanced Computer Technology ACT), Backup Exec also had memory
leaks and other significant problems in some versions during those years.
Since we couldn't afford downtime on our NT server I finally did away with
it.

For most of 1999 I used afbackup, a free backup system for server/client
environments.  While it always worked reliably and fast it was too klunky for
my taste.  You had to restore files by file date rather than backup date and
I need to do frequent restores of small file sets.  afbackup runs on Linux
and other Unixes.

Currently we use bru, a commercial package that costs around $250.  Of all
packages I used so far I like it best.  Their GUI only offers a small subset
of the total functionality of bru.  Bru can keep track of how many times you
wrote to a tape so you can retire tapes easily before they fail.  It is fast
(with our DDS4 drive I get around 4.6 MBytes per second!).  It is reliably
and after I read the manual I realized that it is also very powerful.  There
were some questions that I needed to deal with at some point.  Both times I
reached a capable tech support technician directly without any hold.  The
typical hold times with Seagate (now Veritas) was around 30..45 min!

After all the woes with NT based backups and failures thereof I am not
planning to go back to that anytime soon.  In Unix you need to learn and
think a little more about what you want to do and you may need to write a few
simple scripts.  But reliability is not an issue ever.  In the Windows world
you get excellent GUIs and getting started with your software is a snap.  But
you spend a lot of time later if things don't work the way they should.

Ferdinand

Mike Loseke wrote:

> Thus spake Stephen G. Smith:
> >
> > Okay, now how about some ideas for
> > commercial backup software...
> >
> > Any Price..Any UNIX
>
>  Client, server or both? At work we're using Solaris as the servers
> running both Legato Networker and Veritas and I have my linux boxen
> running linux versions of the clients for both products with no problems.
> (We also do HP-UX and WinX.)
>
>  We've been running Legato for quite some time and have had no end
> of problems with the indexes corrupting themselves at the slightest
> provocation. We're getting ready to switch over fully to Veritas as it
> behaves much better (for our environment anyway). We can also plug our
> NetApp RAID's directly inline with the backup servers' SCSI chain and
> back them over that instead of through an ethernet proxy server (pain
> in the butt and can be slow).
>
>  Both Legato and Veritas are expensive, but you did say "any price". :-)
>
> http://www.legato.com
> http://www.veritas.com
>
>  I can give you the sales guy for this region at Veritas if you like.
>
> --
>    Mike Loseke    | One of life's best joys is putting the little
>  mike at verinet.com | rubber feet on a new piece of networking gear.
>
> _______________________________________________
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--
Ferdinand Schmid
(Staff Engineer)

Architectural Energy Corporation
http://www.archenergy.com
2540 Frontier Avenue, Suite 201
Boulder, CO 80301
Phone: (303) 444-4149
Fax: (303) 444-4304
e-mail: mailto:fschmid at archenergy.com