---------------------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY: network backup software SunFLASH Vol 22 #3 October 1990 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is an article from the newsgroup info.sun-nets. Please understand that it was created by Joe Van Andel after asking for comments from info.sun-nets subscribers and as such it does not claim to be a complete description of all network backup packages. I am sending this summary to SunFlash assuming that there is a lot of interest in backing up Sun's over the network. Consider this to be a useful starting point for people considering network backup software. Please send corrections or additions to Joe and forwarding of this information does not imply an endorsement by Sun Microsystems - johnj ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: vanandel@stout.atd.ucar.EDU (Joe Van Andel) Newsgroups: info.sun-nets Subject: SUMMARY: network backup software Date: 5 Oct 90 22:04:58 GMT I asked sun-nets for advice on network backup software, to meet the following requirements. 1 Automated, unattended, simple to use package 2. Package can backup a running workstation, w/o going single user 3. Maintains a logfile such that I can locate what tape contains a given file. 4. Flexible backup policy, including the ability to include/exclude given directories. (How many copies of the X11 binaries do I need on tape, after all!) ---------------------------------------------------- Here is a summary of what I found. I've quoted freely from many of the people who responded. ---------------------------------------------------- Free software: 1) supersaver 2) 8mmbackup Software from vendors: 1. Legato Networker. 2. BACKUP.UNET from Unitech Software. 3. BUDTool from Delta Microsystems 4. REELbackup from Sceptre 5. APUNIX ---------------------------------------------------- Free software: 1) supersaver available from ics.uci.edu (128.195.1.1) in unix/ss.tar.Z >From the README: Super-saver is a backup/restore program that allows a machine with an exabyte tape drive to be a backup server for a network of machines. The code accesses all files through normal unix system calls, and can therefore be used without shutting down machines or limiting disk activity. Fast algorithms are used where possible to increase backup throughput. 2) 8mmbackup, available from durer.cme.nist.gov (129.6.32.4) in pub/8mmbackup.shar.Z >From the README: The system is essentially an elaborate frontend for creating cpio archives on a high-capacity tape device, managing scheduled backup cycles consisting of an exhaustive ('full') backup followed by numerous 'incrementals', which include just those files that have been modified or created since the prior backup run. The configurer designates what directory hierarchies in the file system to save and what parts to prune from those directory hierarchies. Comprehensive online audit tracing and registration of preserved files is maintained, as well as tape-capacity monitoring and broad operational error checking and recovery, to ensure that minimal operator intervention does not mean missed and neglected problems. This script does not explicitly deal with backing up machines over a network. 3) Configure a solution using available Sun tools: Easy -- have the machine with the exabyte in the other's /.rhosts, and have cron run a script at night that rsh's an rdump to each machine. Sun's 4.1 dump has the ability to just dump a listed set of files/directories. Of course, as the backup load grows, you have to deal with how many dumps fit on a single tape, and compute the correct dump parameters to avoid trying to write past the end of the tape. One person's solution: I do level 0 dumps of each of my workstations on about a monthly schedule, and level 1 dumps of all of them every night under cron, to a remote exabyte. I've never bothered to go single-user before dumping at any level, and have had no problems restoring files or entire file systems. Some more ideas on automatically dumping a machine: 1) get cron to create a file (/etc/dodump) and reboot the machine 2) In rc.local (after ifconfig) do your dump. At this stage there will be no activity. Another comment re this sort of solution: This is pretty awkward since `[r]dump' doesn't have an option to run in the background and return an exit status for different error conditions. You may have to check the return code from fsck to be safe. ------------------------------------------------------------ Software from vendors: ------------------------------------------------------------ 1. Legato Networker. 415-325-2200 This is a fairly new package. The first release created index files that required 5-10% of the file space dumped. Legato claims that this has been reduced to ~2-3% in a new release. 1 Happy customer 1 Not-so-happy customer, because of the size of the index files. 2. BACKUP.UNET from Unitech Software. 703-264-3301 fax 703-264-7796 They claim: Centralized backup from any system in the network. Share tape drive devices and media management (allows one tape drive to be used for backup and restore for all hosts). Optional data verification. Users can locate and restore their own files locally or remotely. Automatic media management (multiple systems/volumes onto one tape). Full and incremental backup. Data encryption across network. Audit trails for each system and a network summary. 3. BUDTool from Delta Microsystems 5039 Preston Ave Livermore, CA 94550 Available from their distributor: Peripheral Devices Corp. (215)-640-0446 Philadelphia, attn: Mike Fanelli Two persons said they were satisfied customers. 4. REELbackup from Sceptre P.O. Box 8031 Ann Arbor, MI 48107 313-665-8778 Phone: (415)449-6881, Fax: (415)449-6885 One satisfied customer with ~40 diskfull workstations and a couple of 4gb servers). 5. APUNIX 800-827-8649 Product uses dump,rdump and writes an index block at the start of tape. This product doesn't currently provide a database of files dumped. ------------------------------------------------------------ Other observations and comments: ------------------------------------------------------------ 1) Lots of folks say they use dump while running multi-user, but in the middle of the night, when things are quiet. 2) Clearly any package must run on a quiet file system to avoid problems with backing up a directory that has been moved between the 'scan' pass and the 'dump' pass. If an inode which used to be a file becomes a directory, or vice-versa, in between the mapping pass and the dumping pass, the *entire dump* can become unreadable by restore. 3) It's important to differentiate "disaster recovery" from "archival" when evaluating backup products. It's hard not to laugh when people ask me if I can retrieve a file from a 5-year-old backup tape. I can point them at a mostly-disorganized pile of magtapes and wish them luck. In other words, our current backup scheme is only meant for disaster recovery. Since I've been here (about 2 years), I've explained this to our users and suggested they make `tar' archives of work they want to save offline rather than relying on being able to locate it from dump/cpio tapes. 4) One user mentioned that running Legato's network consumed 100% of his 3/60-8 CPU, so he wouldn't want to run it during the day! I have not yet had the chance to demo any of these packages yet. When I do, I'll post my results. Once again, thanks for your help! Joe VanAndel Internet:vanandel@ncar.ucar.edu NCAR - ATD/RSF P.O Box 3000 Fax: 303-497-2044 Boulder, CO 80307-3000 Voice: 303-497-2071 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Sunflash is an electronic mail news service from Sun Microsystems, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, USA. It is targeted at Sun Users and Customers. 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