Koozali.org: home of the SME Server
Legacy Forums => General Discussion (Legacy) => Topic started by: Michael Roed on March 27, 2003, 12:10:16 PM
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Hi all!
I would like to install a tapebackup in my SME server but I dont know what software I can use to have it making a backup every night automatic.
Anyone who has configured a tapebackup directly on the SME (not depending on anyother machines!) ???
What software is best and easiest to use?
Thanx,
Michael.
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Is http://www.tapeware.com the anwser?
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no, the answer is that it is already installed in the your system (flexbackup)!
Just use the Server manager panel to specify the time and enable it, put a tape in your drive, and wait for it to happen.
cheers
Brian
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Coooool, thanx!
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Hi,
does anybody knows where (template ?) i have do write the command 'mt /dev/st0 eject' to Eject the Tape AFTER a sucessfull backup, or is there another command to do so ??
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Why back up with tape, its slow, and they wear out too fast or at least the Quic units I used to use did. Went through about 4 and many tapes before switching to rewriteable CDs.
I suggest backing up to a workstation using Winrar (available as Linux or Windows zip program with batch file capability to create CD or DVD size volumes then copying them to CD or DVD the next day.
The workstation can have a big cheap ide drive and as files are compressed they retain their status when uncompressed where as if you tried to just copy to CD everything becomes read only. Compression greatly reduces file size so you may manage even/odd day backups on workstation. Lastly most times if a file is overwritten you simply restore from workstation in seconds - versus time spent searching through tape. Even from a CD is fast due to random access capability.
Here should be a sample of a batch file that creates a backup automatically split in 650 meg highly compressed chunks. You will notice it is set to have 3% extra data wrote to help rebuild in case of a bad sector - don't know if its necessary but can tell you the backups have always restored what and when I wanted.
ftp://64.114.126.34/buOdddayWinrar-bat.bak
www.rarlab.com for the Winrar program.
I expect the above file could be improved upon in many ways though it works fine as is. Adjust as appropriate to your data and disk size, will look forward to seeing any suggested improvements.
A DVDwriter should be a little over $200.00 U.S. now with rewriteable DVDs at about $6.00 . My next workstation will have this convenience.
Ken
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Ken,
Darrell May has made a rpm that adds a panel to the server-manager that does basically exactly what your bat file does above, you can find it at contribs.org as Backup2ws contrib.
Cyrus Bharda
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> Darrell May has made a rpm that adds a panel to the
> server-manager that does basically exactly what your bat file
> does above, you can find it at contribs.org as Backup2ws
I think Darrells idea is more complete at backing up everything but only once.
The purpose of mine was to back up specific vital data repeatedly both to a 2nd computer and off site.
Mine for instance doesn't take into account email but I use POP mail and have Outlook express set to leave the info on the server for an extra 5 days which allows pulling the data off again in case of problems.
In the case of catastrophy I would have to re-install the e-smith using the floppy saved settings. Then the data from CDROM.
Hope it gives another perspective to those considering Tape vs.CD . I have had much better success with restoring CDs than tape but even at that we keep daily backups for a week rotation plus mid month plus end month.
Ken
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Ken,
Backup2ws is configurable to run daily or weekly not just once.
Cyrus Bharda
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> Backup2ws is configurable to run daily or weekly not just once.
>
> Cyrus Bharda
My error; I had looked at a different backup system that backs up to the CD on the Linux system and assumed it was the one you were referring to.
Do you use Backup2ws? I found the site for it but no information about it. It is probably superior to the batch file method I have been using, at least for backing up a Linux server as I would guess it can also backup user settings and email areas. My method is great for the data of the Linux server and Windows servers but is not for the basic system itself.
Ken
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k_graham wrote:
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> Why back up with tape, its slow, and they wear out too fast
> or at least the Quic units I used to use did.
Because things like LTO and LTO 2 store far more than CD's, DVD's and most hard drives; are faster (that's right - FASTER) than many hard drives; are more reliable than hard drives; and you can span tapes.
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to auto eject the tape try
http://forums.contribs.org/index.php?topic=1894.msg6314#msg6314
rod
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The modification in the post you reference no longer works on 6.0b3. I edited /etc/e-smith/events/post-backup/S50rewind-tape and changed the next to last line to read:
exec("/bin/mt", "-f", $device, "offline");
YMMV.
Alan--