Topic: Supported backup devices and removable hard drives.

[ghopper]

I'm planning an upgrade to version 7 and making a few positive changes.  One is to install real and automated, unattended backup, not just something to a workstation.

Data is currently around 50-60 GB and I expect it to go as high as 150 at times.  I'll have two boxes to back up (and might even consider backing up workstation images as well, if this works)

I was originally looking at some sort of tape library, but the difficulty in determining what was supported by SME 7 and comments by a friend got me thinking about using hard drives in a removable bay (like the CA dataStor ones.)  I thought a couple of 400 to 500 GB drives would work nifty if they could be supported and backup could be automated.  I looked through the SME 7 documentation and also the smeserver-backup2 but couldnt find anything that said it could be done.  Specifically smeserver-backup2 looked like it was designed for backing up to a workstation or a external drive on the workstation.  This isn't what I was hoping for.

Ideally, the configuration will automatically backup both servers, allow me to pull the harddrive without powering down the server (the keylock seems to warn the drive that it is going to be removed... and it spins down) and swap in a new drive that may or may not have an old backup on it.  

Otherwise, I need some feedback on selecting a tape backup that will cover my needs.  I'd probabily look on ebay for a surplus device.  My budget for the tape drive (or hard drive) would ba around $150-200 plus the cost of tapes.

Anyone been down this road and has some sage advice?

[dmay]

At a basic level, all backup2 does is copy files. If you can mount and write to your internal and/or external drive(s) via the command line, backup2 will work. Just provide the valid mount point to the backup2 destination.

Darrell

[ghopper]

so backup2 doesn't support any sort of backup automation?

I did some more looking and nothing jumps out as an alternate.  anyone have other ideas?  

If it's the case that backup2 is the only SMC compatable program for hard drive backup, then I pretty much have to go with tape if I want unattended, scheguled backup don't I.

What tape mechanisms are supported?  I never could find a list.

[wjhobbs]

I think your conclusion about backup2 is a little off the mark. (Although it may depend on how you define "backup automation".)

backup2 provides for regularly scheduled backups. You can do what is called a '911' backup which is a full system backup (data and configuration files). You can also schedule partial backups (e.g., certain directories).

You can direct these backups to additional drives on your machine (e.g., removable usb drives) or direct the backups to a share elsewhere on the network.

I have a client that wants off-site backup rotation. I backup certain directories nightly and I have a regularly scheduled 911 backup to usb drive that runs every Saturday morning. When the client comes in on Monday morning, he disconnects the usb drive and takes it off-site after replacing it with the oldest off-site one in the cycle.

Darrell's comment was that if you are able to get to your dataStor drive you could treat it the same as a usb drive with backup2.

The challenge may be the extent to which the dataStor hot-swap capability is supported in the base Linux OS (which I believe is RHEL 4.3).

[ghopper]

wjhobbs  thanks for the correction.  I'm starting to see how this might work.   I'm guessing that a little experimentation is in order before I move this in as a production unit...

I'm pretty new to all this so, any suggestions as to where to start looking for information on the "hot-swap" issue?  I'm not afraid to read and experiment, I just need an idea of where to start.

As to backup automation, I was thinking along the lines of please backup the regular list of ibays to this device.  Let me know if there are any problems and when backup is complete. (and -if it isn't too much trouble- unmount the drive where the backup was made so I can remove it.  Thank you Hal.)

[jcoleman]

You may want to look at BackupPC.  Here is a thread for you to follow.  

http://forums.contribs.org/index.php?topic=32089.0

This will not only backup your server on an automated basis, but it will also backup your workstations if you want to.  You can automate an offsite backup to another BackupPC box.

I have been using this for a while now and it simply works great.

Good luck and let us know what you decide....

-jeff

[ghopper]

I read through the whole thread on Backuppc and it sounds pretty good.  Makes me realize just how much I need to try and learn though!

Thanks to all for the pointers and suggestions.  I'm going to pick up a couple of hard drives and set up a test server with 7 and try out backuppc amont other things.  

I saw a deal at Frys for a couple of Western Digital 200 GB drives for 79 each.  I don't exactly like WD but, IBM's deskstars don't seem to be what they once were.  Anyone see any hot deals on line?

Grant

[jonic]

No reason not to buy those WD, their RMA rate is very low (and this is what you should look at when buying hdds for a server).