Topic: Backups

[Sharif George]

Hi all

I am looking for a simple howto on backup and restores.

I am using a travan 8gb tape on sme server 5.6

I need to know how to do a backup and restore.

Any Suggestions

Sharif

[Kelvin]

Hi Sharif,

Firstly, 2 pieces of advice :-

1. Dump the Travan drive
2. Dump the built in flexbackup

Why ?

Search the forums for Travan and you will know why for (1).

The built in flexbackup program is not a practical backup system for a server system that prides itself as being easy to use. Backup software that requires you to resort to console level access to restore just one file in this day and age is hardly an easy to use system. If you stick with just the server manager panels, all you get are :-

a) Scheduled backups to tape which backs up the whole server (a good thing, but...)
b) Restores which only restores selected bits of the server (ibays, accounts, etc. but NOT any of the customisations etc. you may have done, EVEN THOUGH THEY ARE ON THE BACKUP TAPE !). (a not so good thing)
c) Inspite of (b) above, you do not have selective restore capability (you need to add Darrell May's advanced backup and restore contrib to get this, and even then it is not an easy thing to use - not my words - I have experienced IT people who have trouble using it too let alone non-technical end users !), ie. if you restore from the server manager panel, it restores all the files that were backed up minus the customisations and extras that were installed. So if you only wanted to restore one file, SME's server manager panel cannot accomplish this - a VERY BAD THING ! Nobody I know uses restores this way except when rebuilding a failed server (and even then the fact that the panel restore function does not restore everything that was backed up is also a VERY BAD THING).

My suggestion is to try Shad Lord's Arkeia contrib for SME. The java GUI runs from a Windows workstation and although it takes some getting used to, it is by far much easier than trying to learn and remember flexbackup commands.

Kelvin

[Dan Williams]

I successfully use:
Seagate 20GB IDE Travan Tape Drive with the bundled Tapeware.
Simple to use, and fast.
I struggled in the past with the Flexbackup.
I did however restore files using flexbackup.
Dan

[Sharif George]

does tapeware work for sme - server?

is it a linux application?

Thanks

+++Dan Williams wrote:+++
>
> I successfully use:
> Seagate 20GB IDE Travan Tape Drive with the bundled Tapeware.
> Simple to use, and fast.
> I struggled in the past with the Flexbackup.
> I did however restore files using flexbackup.
> Dan

[Sharif George]

Just one thing

I did download the files but somhow they do not work the windows interface keeps telling me connection failed?

I am going MAD I think.  I installed the rpm and when I tried to uninstall it it tells me it is not installed.  yet when I try to install it it tells me it is already installed eeeek!!

Any Ideas out there

Thanks

Sharif

[Kelvin]

What did you type to uninstall ? Remember that when installing you must specify the full filename of the rpm but when uninstalling, you only specify the program name without the version numbers :-

Eg.

rpm -Uvh someprogram-1.0.5.rpm

to install someprogram.

To uninstall it, you type :-

rpm -e someprogram

(and not rpm -e someprogram-1.0.5)

Kelvin

[Sharif George]

I feel such a wally!!!!

Thanks for that

[Sharif George]

But do you have any ideas why my win machine cant connect?

[Kelvin]

Not at this stage as I've only started working with Tapeware myself. I've used Arkeia mostly.

Kelvin

[Dan Williams]

Yes Tapeware works for SME Server.
The version I use is 6.30 SP3E
You install this on the server, access it from the console.
The one thing I do before using ./twadmin (the command to access the program) is type in
"export TERM=xterm-color"
This fixes an issue with the display.
Actually I created a file that I run that is like this:

export TERM=xterm-color
cd /usr/local/tapeware
./twadmin

So whenever I need into Tapeware I run this, and it puts me where I want to be.
It is quick and reliable so far.

Dan