Backup Utilities

Elizabeth

Hey guys, just curious what utilities/methods you use for doing total backups (i.e, not just database backups but files as well) and how do you store them?

I found this thread but it didn't tell me too much.

Sxooter

Try Mondo Archive

goldbug

I just use SilverKeeper, but that might not work for you 🙂

dalecosp

It kind of depends on which systems I'm backing up. And it would also depend on what you consider to be a viable backup. Many of my LANs would be in bad shape if, say, a tornado took out that office (which happened to one company I did a little work for a couple of years ago ... we found a computer in a field a week later and managed to get most of the data off the hard drive, but we were very lucky). I really need to think what might happen if some building burns down ...

Some of my LAN's use the built-in Windows Backup software to backup to a Samba share; one even just has each client box write to the next one in the office, theory being that no 2 hard drives should fail at the exact same time.

Some of my 'Nix boxen use tar(1) to write to a NFS mounted volume. ATM my webservers use a combination of PHP and Bourne scripts, combined with tar and some compression utility, (some use gzip, others bzip2) to write to another box on the LAN.

I have a few real small (windows) setups where I've just hacked together a batch file using xcopy, either across the network or from C:\ to D:\, for example. Handy for a standalone machine with 2 drives.

I'm currently most excited <?!> about rsync, which I think has been around a while; it's part of the Samba suite, a replacement for rcp(1). Running rsyncd on a 'Nix box is easy, and rsync is available for both 'Nix and Windows boxen. It's fast, easier to use than, say, xcopy, does its own logging, etc. I've not yet played around with compression, so currently I've got to have storage available for the clients at a 1:1 ratio, but I think that it supports some compression which might allow me to get more mileage from my server drive. I'd like to someday have most of the LANs using rsync, I think.

As for what others use, in 'Nix you've got cp, cpio, tar, dump, of which dump is supposed to be best, built in. AMANDA and Bacula are more extensive backup systems, and there are, I'm sure, others. I can't say what specific Linux distros may have as alternatives or whatnot...

On Win, you've lots of commercial stuff available, of course.

piersk

Backup exec is quite good on windows... if you set it up right :bemused:

If you have lots of computers, you could do what one company I know does: pull off all the files (using ftp or something like wget/rsync) onto one main server then you only need to backup the one computer.

Sxooter

Mondo is nice on linux. It lets you create isos for CD or DVD, can write to tape, and it segments things out so you can have >1 tape pretty easily. The best feature is that t makes a boot CD / floppy that can initiate a restore, so you can restore a complete linux install with nothing but a fresh empty box and the restore set.

Seriously, give it a try. i've seen the sysadmins where i used to work using it an it's quite easy to drive and fast.

goldbug

E-beth: How much are you willing to spend on said solution? Is this for you, your employer, third party?

I wouldn't be a good employee if I didn't mention that our company provides secure online data backup services. If you're thinking in that ballpark, service-wise, let me know, and I'll get you in touch with some of our sales folks 😃

Elizabeth

Originally posted by goldbug
E-beth: How much are you willing to spend on said solution? Is this for you, your employer, third party?

I wouldn't be a good employee if I didn't mention that our company provides secure online data backup services. If you're thinking in that ballpark, service-wise, let me know, and I'll get you in touch with some of our sales folks 😃

Too bad you wouldn't get a commission on that $1.50 we have budgeted for back-ups 🙂

Naw, seriously, this is for said employer, but we have only a small network of 1 linux + 5 Win machines, and because we're cheap we wanted to do it as thoroughly and effectively as possible at the lowest cost. Thankfully someone else here is taking care of it, but I offered to ask around for them.

Thanks for all the suggestions guys... such a fountain of knowledge here, I love it. 🙂

id10t

For a serious production system at work, I use rsync to mirror the entire server to a (hardware) twin. Do the same thing at home (just less frequently).

goldbug

Bacula is just an imitation of the real thing! Why bother making safe copies when you can just go back in time and avert the disaster in the first place!

USE THE REAL BAKULA!

Elizabeth

Originally posted by goldbug
Bacula is just an imitation of the real thing! Why bother making safe copies when you can just go back in time and avert the disaster in the first place!

Of course you have to dress up like a punk rocker or a pregnant woman first.