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                   Automatic Network Disk Dump
   
SunFLASH Vol 22 #13					        October 1990 
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A recent SunFlash article which described network backup tools did
not include a description of this tool from Sun's own Consulting
Group. -johnj
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SunOS releases supported:        4.0.2i, 4.0.3, 4.1, other UNIX
Workstation models supported:    Sun-3, Sun-4, Sun-386i, other UNIX
Part number:                     CONSULT-AUTODUMP
Source Availability:             Source for portable diskfull daemon supplied

Note:  Licenses refer to the number of simultaneous back-up
sessions, NOT CPUs.

General Description

CONSULT-AUTODUMP is a distributed SunView-based  tool  for  plan-
ning,  and  performing  at  a  given  hour, a back-up of diskfull
workstations on a heterogenous network.  These diskfull  worksta-
tions  may  be  Suns of different architectures running different
releases of SunOS or may be third-party UNIX/TCP/IP machines from
other constructors.  A daemon runs on each of these machines.

One workstation is equipped with a high capacity storage  device,
typically an EXB-8200[1] 8mm cassette tape subsytem which  has  a
capacity of several gigabytes.  Another (or the same) workstation
with a bit-mapped  display  enables  a  system  administrator  to
organize his back-ups.

CONSULT-AUTODUMP broadcasts on its subnet, and  explicitly  calls
machines  further  away,  to enquire about the filesystems of all
diskfull machines.  Thus the administrator does not need to enter
this  information.   The  result  is a table where each line is a
filesystem and each column represents a possible back-up  session
or   cycle.   Filesystems  may  appear  in  several  cycles;  the
appropriate incremental dump(8) level is edited into the table.

Each night the administrator chooses a cycle to run, starting  at
a  given  time.   Or he can predefine which cycles are to be run,
and when, using the crontab(1) command.  The output, showing  the
result  of  each  filesystem  back-up,  can  be mailed when using
crontab(1) or viewed anytime from a centrally  collected  history
file, using the tool.

Notes

Parameters need only be  entered  once;  all  administrator  data
(time,  media, cycles) are stored in an ASCII database in between
separate executions of the tool.

Only UNIX filesystem partitions can be backed up without program-
ming  effort.  Restore after file loss is done using the standard
restore(8) command which on Sun has an interactive mode.

Contacts

To order a copy of Automatic Network  Disk  Dump,  or  to  obtain
assistance   in   porting  the  diskfull  daemon  to  third-party
machines, contact your local Sun Sales Office.  See Sun  Consult-
ing  Order  Information  and  Terms and Conditions for additional
information.  Enquire about local support conditions.

_________________________

  [1] EXB is a trademark of EXABYTE Corporation.


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