fbackup question

[Kim_30]

I have two servers with DDS tape drives and want to get fbackup to use first one tape on one system for vol 1 and the when its full switch to vol 2 tape on other server. This is the command I have used but it won't jump to second tape output to complete backup.
fbackup -v -f server1:/dev/rmt/0m -f /dev/rmt/0m -i / -I /tmp/index

[Michael Tully]

Hi Kim,

I am fairly sure that the way you are trying
to do your backup is not supported. I would
suggest that perhaps you split your backups
into separate jobs.

There are a number of questions in the forum
during the last few months in regards to
problems with fbackup. I've attached a copy
of a script that we used to use for fbackup.
I hope it helps. One suggestion also is to do
a search using 'fbackup' as your search string.
There are quite a number of posts regarding the
use of 'fbackup'.

[Kim_30]

Thanks for the backup script. I have seen it in some other threads I looked at. Have attempted to adapt it to my situation but have problems with testing it. Suspect my fbackup_config file is not right.
I was able to get my original command string to work after setting up the servers to allow root capabilities on each other. My original solution does not stop for volume change if more than two tapes are needed. It would be easier to set up two backups but I wanted to be sure I got all the space utilized on the tapes. Does anyone know how to tell how much space is still free on a tape?

[Michael Tully]

Hi,

There is little chance of finding out how much space is on the tape. This is because of compression ratios. One day a backup may have a 40% compression ratio and the next day something entirely different. You cannot read the tape back to find this out either. I remember seeing a thread on this before. I was trying to find it but couldn't... Sorry

Regards
Michael

[Magdi KAMAL]

Hi Kim,

As Micheal said, there is no manner to put a part of data on one drive and other on the second using fbackup.

Either split your job into two jobs one on each tape drive or

HP OpenView Omniback II tool which allow you to have a media pool and then it allows you to do what you plan initially.


Sorry to send it so late !!! Just read it now.

Magdi

[Dave Wherry]

It's really not worth your time to try and be too efficient with the tape usage. I worked in a shop where we spent hours and hours each year trying to fine tune backups and keep it to a minimum number of tapes. DAT tapes are not that expensive.
Like the others I do not know of a way to switch drives during an fbackup session. I think there may have been a similar question before and some one posted a script. It sounds familiar.
Otherwise break it into 2 jobs. That also requires maintenance. If the file systems you defined in one of the jobs grows to where they do not fit on one tape, you're back to redefining those jobs.

Also mentioned was OmniBack. If you can come up with about $9K (that's list price) you can get OmniBack server and licenses for 2 concurrent drives. OBII will automatically spread the job over the 2 drives for faster performance and you get better cataloging than you do with fbackup. I really sugget OBII.
You can also go with the Windows version which costs about $3,600 for the server and unlimited tape drives. It will backup your Unix hosts. You just need a Windows 2K box to run it on.

One other option, get a stand-alone DLT drive. It will handle much more than 2 DAT drives. Of course the tapes are much more expensive too.