Simple, efficient, reliable backup for Linux
quasimoto
Linux? Tar and cpio don't cut it. Aside from experiencing frequent problems
with these utilities, it takes forever to produce an archive list or
torestore a single file from a large archive (> 1GB), as the entire archive
apparently has to be traversed. Taper appears to be unnecessarily complex
and not well-maintained, judging from the man pages. I was told BRU offers
a free single-user version of their software, but I was unable to locate it
for evaluation.
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Jean-David Beyer
>
> Can someone recommend a simple, efficient, reliable backup method for
> Linux? Tar and cpio don't cut it.
I have never liked tar. I have used the find--cpio combination
successfully for years with no problems, though I normally use BRU.
> Aside from experiencing frequent problems
> with these utilities, it takes forever to produce an archive list or
> torestore a single file from a large archive (> 1GB), as the entire archive
> apparently has to be traversed.
I use cron to run my backups at about 1AM everyday. I do a full backup
that takes about 20 minutes for a little over 4Gbytes of backup and
another 20 minutes to verify it. It is my impression that the find--cpio
combination takes a little longer, but I did not actually measure it. I
use an Ecrix VXA-1 drive on an Ultra-2 SCSI controller to run the tape
drive.
As far as restoring is concerned, BRU have a method that makes it
possible to restore single files much quicker if you have a SCSI tape
drive. It requires you to use a 512-byte (or 1024-byte, I do not
remember which) blocksize on the tape instead of the usual 65536-byte
block size. This makes reading and writing less efficient, but if you do
a lot of single-file restores it could be worth doing it.
I mainly use backup to deal with major disasters, where I might have to
buy two new hard drives and restore everything. I need restore a single
file only once every few months when I stupidly delete one that I need.
> Taper appears to be unnecessarily complex
> and not well-maintained, judging from the man pages. I was told BRU offers
> a free single-user version of their software, but I was unable to locate it
> for evaluation.
>
It may be that BRU has an evaluation version, but it probably expires
after 30 days or something. There was no free version when I got mine
about two years ago. I cannot get to their web site this morning, but it
should be at:
--
.~. Jean-David Beyer Registered Linux User 85642.
/V\ Registered Machine 73926.
/( )\ Shrewsbury, New Jersey http://counter.li.org
^^-^^ 9:45am up 23 days, 16:40, 4 users, load average: 4.99, 4.54, 3.93
Tony Lawrence
>
> Can someone recommend a simple, efficient, reliable backup method for
> Linux? Tar and cpio don't cut it. Aside from experiencing frequent problems
> with these utilities, it takes forever to produce an archive list or
> torestore a single file from a large archive (> 1GB), as the entire archive
> apparently has to be traversed. Taper appears to be unnecessarily complex
> and not well-maintained, judging from the man pages. I was told BRU offers
> a free single-user version of their software, but I was unable to locate it
> for evaluation.
Microlite sells a personal version of its BackupEdgess for $80.00. See
http://pcunix.com/Reviews/backupedgess.html
Single file restores from anywhere on an indexed DVD-RAM are almost
instant; from tape is just a few seconds. Backups up to tape, CD-RW,
DVD-RAM, tar compatible, recovery disk can be included on CD or DVD-RAM-
nice product. I've used it for many years on SCO systems and use it on
the Linux box I use here.
You can download a 30 day evaluation copy.
--
Tony Lawrence
SCO/Linux Support Tips, How-To's, Tests and more: http://pcunix.com
Dave Brown
> quasimoto wrote:
>>
>> Can someone recommend a simple, efficient, reliable backup method for
>> Linux? Tar and cpio don't cut it.
>> Aside from experiencing frequent problems
>> with these utilities, it takes forever to produce an archive list or
>> torestore a single file from a large archive (> 1GB), as the entire archive
>> apparently has to be traversed.
Isn't this more a function of tape speed (and how you've organized your
backups).
> It may be that BRU has an evaluation version, but it probably expires
> after 30 days or something. There was no free version when I got mine
> about two years ago. I cannot get to their web site this morning, but it
> should be at:
You might take a look at amanda.
--
Dave Brown Austin, TX
Tony Lawrence
>
> In article <3BC847B2...@exit109.com>, Jean-David Beyer wrote:
> > quasimoto wrote:
> >>
> >> Can someone recommend a simple, efficient, reliable backup method for
> >> Linux? Tar and cpio don't cut it.
> >>...
> >> Aside from experiencing frequent problems
> >> with these utilities, it takes forever to produce an archive list or
> >> torestore a single file from a large archive (> 1GB), as the entire archive
> >> apparently has to be traversed.
>
> Isn't this more a function of tape speed (and how you've organized your
> backups).
Not entirely. Many modern tape drives have a "fast seek" capability
where the tape can be quickly moved forward. If you have an index of
where files are, you can fast seek and then do an ordinary read.
Commercial software (any of the supertars-
http://pcunix.com/Reviews/supertars.html ) all have this capability.
Jean-David Beyer
>
> In article <3BC847B2...@exit109.com>, Jean-David Beyer wrote:
> > quasimoto wrote:
> >>
> >> Can someone recommend a simple, efficient, reliable backup method for
> >> Linux? Tar and cpio don't cut it.
> >>...
> >> Aside from experiencing frequent problems
> >> with these utilities, it takes forever to produce an archive list or
> >> torestore a single file from a large archive (> 1GB), as the entire archive
> >> apparently has to be traversed.
>
> Isn't this more a function of tape speed (and how you've organized your
> backups).
Making an archive list depends only on how fast the find command runs
(or whatever you use instead of if) on your machine. If that is too
slow, you must have a very slow machine: it can surely run faster than
cpio can write a tape, so it should not matter very much, especially if
you have only a little more than 1 Gbyte to write.
>
> > It may be that BRU has an evaluation version, but it probably expires
> > after 30 days or something. There was no free version when I got mine
> > about two years ago. I cannot get to their web site this morning, but it
> > should be at:
>
> You might take a look at amanda.
>
> --
> Dave Brown Austin, TX
--
.~. Jean-David Beyer Registered Linux User 85642.
/V\ Registered Machine 73926.
/( )\ Shrewsbury, New Jersey http://counter.li.org
^^-^^ 4:10pm up 23 days, 23:05, 3 users, load average: 4.89, 4.93, 4.88
quasimoto
> Dave Brown wrote:
>>
>> In article <3BC847B2...@exit109.com>, Jean-David Beyer wrote:
>> > quasimoto wrote:
>> >>
>> >> Can someone recommend a simple, efficient, reliable backup method for
>> >> Linux? Tar and cpio don't cut it.
>> >>...
>> >> Aside from experiencing frequent problems
>> >> with these utilities, it takes forever to produce an archive list or
>> >> torestore a single file from a large archive (> 1GB), as the entire
>> >> archive apparently has to be traversed.
>>
>> Isn't this more a function of tape speed (and how you've organized your
>> backups).
>
> Making an archive list depends only on how fast the find command runs
> (or whatever you use instead of if) on your machine. If that is too
> slow, you must have a very slow machine: it can surely run faster than
> cpio can write a tape, so it should not matter very much, especially if
> you have only a little more than 1 Gbyte to write.
Evidently, you've never tried to restore from tar. It takes just as long to
generate an archive list as it does to create an archive. Over 2 hours on
my machine (800 MHz with DDS3).
quasimoto
Thanks! I'll give it a look.
Frank Miles
quasimoto <odys...@w-link.net> wrote:
>Can someone recommend a simple, efficient, reliable backup method for
>Linux? Tar and cpio don't cut it. Aside from experiencing frequent problems
>with these utilities, it takes forever to produce an archive list or
>torestore a single file from a large archive (> 1GB), as the entire archive
>apparently has to be traversed. Taper appears to be unnecessarily complex
>and not well-maintained, judging from the man pages. I was told BRU offers
>a free single-user version of their software, but I was unable to locate it
>for evaluation.
If you can get it running, afbackup does it well. It's free (well, mostly
free - the license forbids adapting the server portion to a Microsoft
platform). Once running, it works very well.
-frank
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