topic Re: Automated network backups without a budget :) in Operating System - HP-UX

Automated network backups without a budget :)

George_Dodds — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 06:49:18 GMT

Does anyone know of a free backup software that will run on HPUX and utilise a tape library?

I need to back up a number of servers over a gigabit lan.

There is no budget available for this but i do have a neostore LTO2 tape library and a spare L1000 that i can use as a media server.

Not even cheap software is an option here.

Re: Automated network backups without a budget :)

Pete Randall — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 07:00:04 GMT

George,

Considering your limitations, I think you've got to take a look at fbackup. Here's a thread that discusses some of fbackups features and drawbacks:

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=1005814

Pete

Re: Automated network backups without a budget :)

George_Dodds — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 07:12:32 GMT

Cheers Pete, i know what i've got to work with is a bit limited but i enjoy a challenge ;)

1 tape per backup isnt an issue here the main thing would be getting the right tape in the right drive for the right backup.

The silo can hold about 40 tapes and has 2 drives. I have 10 servers to backup with about 2tb of data.

Re: Automated network backups without a budget :)

Arunvijai_4 — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 08:03:53 GMT

Hi George,

Check this out,

http://www.backupcentral.com/free-backup-software2.html

-Arun

Re: Automated network backups without a budget :)

Bill Hassell — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 09:45:22 GMT

fbackup will work well and you can manipulate the tape library with the mc command. Now running fbackup on the local node and specifying the tape device as a remote tape means you won't have any control over the tape library (changer). So the task will have to be coordinated from the media server. Your backup starts by loading the right tape, then scheduling fbackup on the remote machine and sending the data to the media server's tape drive. You always need to use a config file for fbackup or the records will be too small to keep the tape drive running at full speed. And the media server must allow remsh from the remote systems so the remote tape capability will work.

Also consider carefully the recovery process. fbackup works well for individual files and directories but is useless for loss of the remote system's root disk. For that, you will need Ignite/UX, specifically setting up the media server as an Ignite network server. You'll need anough space to hold VG00 for all the machines. And of course, test the backups and the restore steps. You don't want to find out you can't restore the files you need because of a mistake in the backup process.

Re: Automated network backups without a budget :)

Alzhy — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 09:52:27 GMT

Amanda.

www.amanda.org

You'll love it.

Re: Automated network backups without a budget :)

dirk dierickx — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 02:43:01 GMT

bacula also looks to be promising, might by a serious competition for amanda.

http://www.bacula.org/

Re: Automated network backups without a budget :)

Chris Watson — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 03:54:35 GMT

I would put in a vote for bacula aswel, it is very similar to data protector.