free backup/restore software for HP UX

[shankar!]

Hi all,

I have couple of HP RP 3440, 4440 servers in my organization. I am planning to implement a backup solution that would backup os data/application and database from all servers to the tape drive (hp 1/8 autoloader sdlt) which is attached to one of the HP UX 11 v2 server. can someone please suggest a free or opensource backup tool so that I can start the backup and restore data on all HP servers?

Thanks
-Shankar

[Tim Nelson · Accepted solution]

OS backup,
Ignite !!!

Data backup,
1-fbackup (HPUX embedded)
2-cpio (HPUX embedded)
3-tar (HPUX embedded)

using remote tape over LAN? good luck, performance has never been acceptable if even functional.

For you to get anything with acceptable performance with any bells and whistles you probably will not be happy unless you buy something.

You probably spent alot for these servers and applications, you probably need to spend a little more to aquire some backup insurance.

[sreekanthtm]

Hi,

You can approach different backup method for data and OS.
OS --> Ignite UX is the ever best backup solution.
For data backup, You can use tar, or fbackup as a solution. You can share the same tape drive across the n/w to take backup.

If this works for u, please do reply. I can give more details....

[Ganesan R]

Hi,

As specified above, ignite is the only best option to take OS backup.

If you strict with free tool, then fbackup would be better option in terms of performance point of view.

But considering DB/App's backup, online backup it is better to go for HP's Data protector or Veritas netbackup. These are designed only for that purposes.

Decision is yours.

[shankar!]

Thank you for your time.

I would definitely think about buying a backup software. Meanwhile, can we accomplish the backup task using with fbackup/frestore commands? If so, can someone please guide me on this?

Do you think there is no other backup software (I mean an opensource) available for HP UX that can do the same job as fbackup/frestore? If so, can you suggest a good software to buy?

Thank you all
-Shankar

[shankar!]

Hi,

Any help on command line backup fbackup/frecover? any guides or documents available on this?

I've already configure the tape library and inserted few SDLT tape drives in it.

Thanks

[Heironimus]

You could look at amanda (www.amanda.org), but I don't know how well it works on HP-UX.

[Tim Nelson]

Buy-me software:

stay away from Symantec products ( netbackup or backup exec) Poor support and functionality for UNIX environment.

In fact stay away from all Intel based backup products.

Legato ( expensive )

Tivoli ( expensive )

HP Data Protector ( seems to have the most realistic cost model, priced by backup device not by CPU or server count).

Depending on the amount of data, if large you would be better off creating a Tape Area Network ( TAN ), connection the tape to the servers via fibre channel network.

If the data is small you should be able to get away with LAN based backups.

How to backup data dirs:
You will need to create some scripts and schedule them in cron. shutdown applications and execute full backup on dirs or integrate application backups with filesystem backups.

read man pages for fbackup
e.g. fbackup -f /dev/rmt/0m -i /mydir1 -i mydir2

[Bill Hassell]

The backup program of choice is Data Protector from HP. It runs on a wide variety of systems (not just HP-UX) and is enterprise class which means extensive audit logs, multi-tape and tape changer support and given a fast enough network (100 Mbit LAN is on the slow side), should work with the SDLT drives. The network speed is a critical factor here -- the SDLT needs data faster than the 5-7 MBytes/sec than a 100 MBit LAN can sustain. When you fail to keep the tape drive busy, there will be enormous delays (10:1 degradation) in performance.

fbackup works reasonably well but lacks any accounting features (just a simple log) so keeping track of all the tapes, dates, server names and data will be a big challenge. Also note that no general backup program can restore to a new boot disk. You need a separate strategy for recovering from loss of the boot disk(s) which is called Ignite/UX. Since you have a central tape drive, it is not possible to boot from the tape drive over the network so you'll need to use make_net_recovery. Get the details from: http://www.docs.hp.com/en/IUX

If you don't purchase Data Protector, take a look at the feature list in DP since most of these will be needed in a multi-CPU environment. Record keeping is a critical part of a good backup program.

[OldSchool]

you might consider "bacula" or "amanda" for backups. Both are supposed to work with autochanger devices.

fbackup, if I recall correctly, doesn't deal with autochangers or tape libraries, so automated backups exceeding the capacity of 1 tape may not be possible.

Commercial products would include DataProctector, Veritas and others.....

see the following for information on bacula and amanda:

http://www.backupcentral.com/components/com_mambowiki/index.php/Free_Backup_Software

you might also want to get ahold of a copy of "Backup and Recovery" by Curtis Preston (pub. by O'Reilly) for more info on opensource backup products