backup software

[Rick Garland]

Looking at implementing a backup solution. Wanting to get opinions and feedback as to the various products that are available.

Mostly on HP-UX 10.20 and 11.00 with a couple of Solaris and a Linux. At some point would need to include Digital UNIX as well.

What are the pros and cons of the people out there?

Thanks all!

[Jeremiah Campbell]

Rick,

I have been researching this subject myself, the first thing I must say is that you need to specify what kind of backup you are looking for.

1) A simple server crash - where somebody installs something that can't be backed off, or deletes something that they shouldn't have, a harddrive goes bad, etc... ( minimal loss of hardware )

2) A complete disaster - you are sitting in hurricane alley during Hurricane Bonnie '99 and your machines are sitting in 16 feet of water, all you can see is the tip-top of your building projecting up out of a newly formed lake... ( severe loss of hardware )

There is a handy utility for HP-UX named Ignite-UX, while this won't help much that I know of on your linux & solaris boxes, it is a very useful utility for your HP boxes. The "make_recovery" utility will make your day beautiful in the case of #1 (above), however, it can get tricky with #2. So far I am still on the hunt for the solution to #2, but here is a useful command for situation #1.

/opt/ignite/bin/make_recovery -A -C -v -d /dev/rmt/#m(ddsdrive, found with "ioscan -funC tape") (all on one line)

So far my research has pointed to the use of "make_sys_image" and "make_medialif" to create a "golden image" for situation #2

hope this helps
Jeremiah

[Jeremiah Campbell]

I am sorry,

I should have explained what the make_recovery command will do for you. Again, the command:

/opt/ignite/bin/make_recovery -A -C -v -d /dev/rmt/#m

when entered it will make a bootable recovery tape that contains the entire contents of vg00. The reason this is only useful for situation 1 (described in my last post) is that it copies HW specific configuration files, that will only work with nearly identical hardware. There are options that can be also to configure the tape for a different server also.

In the case that you need to recover your server, all you do is:
1. bring the system down
2. replace the HW
3. as the machine boots up interupt the boot sequence
4. boot from the tape...
about 30 minutes later, you have your machine back.

[Steven Sim Kok Leong]

Hi,

When you are considering a backup solution, you would also want to evaluate its media management capabilities. Most third-party tools such as tar, udump, cpio etc. do not provide such a functionality unlike HP's Omniback and Legato's Networker.

Personally, I prefer HP's Omniback. It really makes restoration of files a breeze. The downside is its huge Omniback database which you have to trim from time to time as with most backup solutions with media management capabilities.

Note also the capability of the backup solution to backup and restore device files. Before you decide on a backup solution, make sure that you have tried out the restoration to make sure that it works.

Regards.

Steven Sim.

[Anthony Goonetilleke]

It comes down to one thing money!
If you have the money go with Omniback it works well with all other Unix and NT boxes.
And it is very easy to use.

If you want something free but still good use AMANDA (Advanced Maryland Automatic Network Disk Archiver) which can be found at http://amanda.sourceforge.net/

[Kevin Clark]

The latest version of HP OmniBack II (version 3.5) should do just about all of what you wish. It can be installed easily via Software Distributor (swinstall) and comes with a 60 day evaluation license.

In addition to the previous comments, the media agent is not currently supported under Linux (expected to be a month or so away), so you will need to backup your Linux servers to devices situated elsewhere.