Topic: Backup & Restore

[Adserg]

Does anyone know of a complete backup and restore software/rpms or what ever that give you a graphical interface? If not then that would be my wish.

I find backing up with Default e-smith backup to tape ok, On a personal front i dont like the idea of backing up to a desktop? well maybe thats just me.

But i find doing a restore by typing it in a bit long winded id rather be able to view my backup tape click and select and then restore the file i want.

Ade

[Dave Donaldson]

e-smith does not, by default, install or run an x-server.

Are you really interested in backing up the e-smith server completely, or are you referring to iBays?

Why not just backup to a Windows workstation using one of many decent and inexpensive programs?

Novastor (tapes, SCSI, file media)  $79 or so.
Handy Backup (no tapes, just CD-R[W] and hard drive files as media) $39 on the net.

dave...

[Adrian S]

Dave

The backing up part of it i dont really care as long as the data is there, full backup or incremental doesnt matter. I am more interested in being able to visably select the releveant files and restore from a tape on the server..

As a new boy to linux i am catching up fast and am now really looking to make things easier for myself and customers who dont like the idea of copying 180 gig's worth of data to a desktop.

I dont know about you Dave but i find that customer's are really willing to change to a Linux platform, However when you get around to the backup/restore part of it that's when things start to fall down. Like i said i dont mind if the software back's up the total server like the default e-smith flexbackup does, as long as the total data is there. I am simply looking for an rpm which you can possibly allow a  web browse function to selectivly restore individual files from say eg: Dat 24
scsi tape backup. ( Remember the default NT backup/restore function crude but works).

Some of our customers want to take tapes off site alot easier than carring a desktop under your arm.

E-smith is a spot on product and i supose the wish list could go on and on but surley as a data/storage platform an easy means of backup/restore that Mr/Miss/Mrs IT person who ever it is can get to grips with without typing it in or even worse restoring a part of a server that doesnt need restoring by typing it in wrong.

We have shown customers Mandrake and Redhat but it's E-smith that has the intrest for it's simplicity.

Any other opinions for/against would be intresting.

Thanks' Dave for droping me that info appreciate it

Best Regards

[Adrian S]

SME Server V5 with ServiceLink
User Guide - 5.1
Mitel Networks Corporation

Taper - Backup software for Linux anyone ever tried it?

http://www.e-survey.net.au/taper/

[Kelvin]

Hi Adrian,

You are probably quite new to SME or at least have not been following the forums much. There is (was ?) a how-to on configuring the standard backup program to be Taper (which ships as part of SME) instead of the default program, flexbackup.

I have used Taper very successfully in the past (still do in some installations). I've also stated before that given a choice between Taper and flexbackup for the client to use, 9 out of 10 will choose Taper. The big setback at the moment is that the current stable version does not support backups over 4GB (being 32bit based). The new version being worked on will but is not ready.

Most will agree that 4GB in this day and age is tiny and not very useful. However, it is not totally useless either. As I've stated before, I still use Taper in some installations. These would be sites that usually only use SME as a mailserver and internet gateway and possibly just for an occasional file storage facility. Backing up to desktop is not something a lot of client sites want to do (the less they have to interact with the server, the better). 4GBs in these installations is ample. And this also a great excuse to reuse some of the older tape drives out there (some companies actually still have them, usually having superceded them with newer drives in their main servers) which may not have the capacities of todays backup monsters.

Just my 2 bits.

Kelvin

[nick]

Hi all,
I've been using flexbackup for a while and agree with you all.I have an issue with it not listing all files from it's  list.log see general phorum  " flexbackup view contnents"
I've tried Taper as well, a great free product. I could be wrong but there is no ability to set it to backup automatically. Can any one tell me if it is possible and how.
Regards
Nick

[Kelvin]

Hi Nick,

There used to be a howto on configuring Taper as your normal backup program instead of flexbackup. Taper can be configured to backup automatically but not to restore automatically (no big deal, just use the GUI-like interface, it's fairly intuitive, which was the whole idea).

Unfortunately, because of the hoo-hah over not being able to backup past 4GB (So what ? As long as you are aware of the limitation, it's up to you how you use it, isn't it ?), Darrell May, the author of the how-to has decided to withdraw the how-to as he feels that nobody should be using Taper anymore due to that limitation.

While I don't agree with his principle, it is his how-to and I suppose he is entitled to do with it as he pleases. The howto still appears in the list of howtos, but the link is dead. That's the other thing I don't really agree with. Although I've said it's his howto and he can do with it as he pleases, I believe that any howto that's been contributed to the e-smith community should stay there, much like a growing knowlegebase. Does not matter if the info gets outdated by new releases of SME, etc. At most, the author may at his discretion submit an updated how-to but not actually remove the how-to altogether.

Oh well, we who depend on others ..... beggars can't be choosers.

Kelvin

[nick]

Thanks Kevin,
 I appreciate the update on taper and agree with you again.
All Info should remain as part of the Knowledge base. Relevant or not.
 It just might be that one thing a person is looking for, thats what this .org is all about....isn't it?
Regards
Nick

[Rod]

You can use Arkeia backup.  Free version backs up one linux server + 2 win workstations.  Full GUI, pro features and performance.  Needs X.  Takes about 5 minutes to install.  

www.arkeia.com.

[Rob Wellesley]

Here's what we do

For Recovery we Install hotswap RAID1 drive bays and rotate three drives - one off site. This is a real no brainer for a client

For file recovery - rsync ibays to spare drive space (plenty these days) on the back of a client PC. Use a hidden share and with a Win2k client add a backup user and password to that PC

Also - we install a Harddrive on the Server (post install) and rsync all data to that once a day - make smb.conf changes so the whole drive is a hidden share.

Say good by to the need for tape alt all (unless archiving is an issue)

rob

[Kelvin]

Hi Rob,

We do a similar thing with a few sites, except we actually shut down the server before removing a drive out of the hot swap chassis. This way, if we need to restart from the "backup" hard disk, SME does not think it crashed prior to this boot up plus all files including any open databases, etc. are closed and shutdown properly.

This also applies to any MS based or Novell based servers using the same sort of hot swap systems. If you simply removed and replaced a live hard disk in the middle of operation, especially for live database servers, you are more than likely to end up with a database that is corrupt or unusable.

Kelvin

[Rob Wellesley]

Kelvin wrote:

 we actually
> shut down the server before removing a drive out of the hot
> swap chassis. This way, if we need to restart from the
> "backup" hard disk, SME does not think it crashed prior to
> this boot up plus all files including any open databases,
> etc. are closed and shutdown properly.
>

Excellent point Kelvin - Generally we are only going to use the hotswap for DR recovery (fire, theft, etc.) so it's not so critical that we boot from the drive. However adding a cron > mysql dump to /root is something we will do now re: data base

thanks

(Go the Warriors

[Dave Donaldson]

Adirian,

I think you missed my point on the removable drive thing for backup.  I don't think toting a PC around was part of the picture.

My main point here was...dump the tapes altogether and go for removable drives.

They're so much faster and reliable than tape, and you can restore a file or folder in seconds instead of ... a half-hour?.

Linux now supports hot removable media on USB 2.0 interface adapters.  Using an 80 or 120 gig ATA hard drive ($105-$150 mail order), a $45 external USB 2 hard drive case and a simple good-ole Unix style script run on cron, you can create a very inexpensive, dependable, fast and simple backup system that can't be beat at any price.

Fast - copies files at breakneck speed (480Mbps I/O interface) in read-only mode, allowing you to copy many kinds of open files too.
Simple - unmount the drive, power it off, unplug it, replace it with the next one in rotation, power it on, and mount it.  Voi-la.  That's it.  No loading and no loading delicate autoloader magazines.
Easy - anyone can recover a file, simply by copying from the backup mount to original location.  Ta-da!  No training needed, and no special software.
Portable - slip the case into a padded carrier, and take the drive off-site.  Return the next day with the one it replaced, and return it to the rotation pool.
Cheap - buy five drives and cases for just $750-$975, less than the cost of most 24 gig tape drives - and that's before you've bought the tapes!
Long Life - the right hard drives come with a three year warranty, as opposed to a one-year warranty on a tape drive, and one-year on tape media.  Hard drive life expectancy is 5 years.  Try getting a tape drive to last that long.
No Cleaning - no dirt - enough said.
No Software to Buy - write your own script to selectively backup what you need.  You can even pause, copy out and resume SQL data bases too.  Try that with other programs!
Archives - don't erase old files, just leave them there.  This media is much larger than your file server store.  Only changed and new files get copied.  This lets you recover those tax records accounting accidentally erased (and of course were not archived) six months ago!  Try that with tape!
Better Environmental - hard drives can take the heat and cold.  Tapes can't.
Bigger Capacity - a tape loader or DLT system capable of storing 100 gig costs between $2800 and $7,000 - once again, not counting the media.  And 100 gig DLT media runs $100 right there.
It Can Grow - need a larger store...get this...use two at a time!  So this solution expands and scales nicely.
Read Elsewhere - install a $40 USB 2 controller in another machine and you can read/write/format the media there too!  No expensive drive to buy or to move/reinstall when upgrading your server.

I don't know what all this fuss is about.  For my money, tapes are not the way to go.  They just don't make sense.

dave...

[Adrian S]

Ok Dave

Fair comment mate point taken.

I am going to checkout and test what you suggest and see how i get on.

Best Regards

Adrian


PS Thanks to all you guys for your help with this I have taken on board all opinions and ideas.

Thanks again.

[BillR]

Has anyone tried the BRU Linux backup option.
I have used it on a couple of redhat machines and it is super.
It accepts command scripts and can be scheduled. They try to use system commands as much as possible. There is a gui but I believe it needs X to run.
I will be giving it a try soon for a customer and wlll let y'all know.