fbackup vs veritas

[Elena Leontieva]

Hello,

Traditionally in our data center the UNIX servers data are being backed up by Veritas software and the UNIX system directories are being backed up using fbackup and local DDS tape drives. Could it be better if we start doing OS backups through Veritas? Do you see any advantages using local tape drives for OS backups?

Thanks,
Elena.

[Tom Ward_1 · Accepted solution]

Hello Elena,

So long as you have enough capacity of tapes and tape drives to handle the additional backups you would be better off using Netbackup for the OS backups. You won't need to manually go to each system and load tapes. Restores are easier with Netbackup as well.

You should have ignite images for system recovery, but even those can go to an ignite server which eliminates the need for a local tape drive.

I don't see any advantage to using local tapes for OS backups.

Regards,
Tom

[Andy Torres]

There's much to consider when deciding your backup strategy. It tends to boil down to how you prefer to recover your system from a failure, and how quickly you want to recover lost data in non-OS areas.

I've typically seen companies back up their data filesystems with Veritas, and back up their OS using Ignite tapes or an Ignite server.

There are advantages and disadvantages to having either one tape library or a bunch of local tape drives, or a mixture of both. It depends mostly on your recovery strategy and what works best for your company during local and remote recovery.

[Geoff Wild]

We use Veritas for the data and we also use it for the OS.

We created OS polocies so that they don't interfere with the DB ones.

Only thing we use HP for - is ignite - we setup an ignite server to capture the images.

Local tapes? nope - we did away with them - just a pain - no reason for them (good to have a floater - one that say is external for rare occasions).

Rgds...Geoff

[Sยภเl Kย๓คг]

Hi,

It would be better if u start taking OS backup through veritas. This will alos help u to restore specified files or filesystems, or any major or minor filesystems problems or accidental file deletion etc.

But it is always good you take an ignite backup using the dds drives, before and after any changes happening in system, can be an hardware or software.

Regards,
Sunil

[Eric Antunes]

Hi Elena,

I use NFS and tar for data (always full recover), fbackup for applications (not always full recover: I just did a partial one) and Ignite for OS.

Best Regards,

Eric Antunes

[Bill Hassell]

Veritas works fine for OS files as well as database files. Of course, neither Veritas nor fbackup are of any value in replacing a lost boot disk--for that, you must use Ignite/UX, either a local tape drive or a network server. One other consdieration for local backups is performance over the network. Tape drives, specifically the new generation of Ultrium drives, are now too fast for 100 Mbit LAN cards. These drives are designed to stream or run continuously at one speed and with higher densities, the minimum data rate to keep the drive streaming has now exceeded 100 Mbit LANs and this requires the tape drive to stop, backup and resync, a very lengthy process.

Recognizing this problem, HP (and other manufacturers) now have data rate awareness and will slow down the tape speed to prevent the resync operations. Naturally, the tape won't meet the maximum data rate specs under these conditions, but will not be strangled by excessive resyncs which can penalize backup speeds by as much as 100:1.

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom Elena,

Going all Veritas has the advantage of making life simpler.

fbackup is great for OS file backup, though it can't create bootable system images like Ignite.

Using a combination of fbackup and Veritas is more complex than Veritas alone. You have to remember in a crisis what was backed up where.

Please don't forget to create bootable system restore images with either ignite make_tape_recovery or make_net_recovery

Its important to be able to recover from a root disk failure.

SEP

[Adisuria Wangsadinata_1]

Hi Elena,

Good day to you !
I agreed with SEP. When you can backup all thru Veritas, it will be great.

But when you have a system crash, the first thing to do is to recover the system as soon as possible. And this can be done if you create a bootable backup tape for your boot disk on your system. You can use Ignite/UX software features for this issue, by using 'make_tape_recovery' or 'make_net_recovery', check the url below for details of Ignite/UX software (free software from HP) :

http://www.docs.hp.com/en/IUX/
http://h20293.www2.hp.com/portal/swdepot/displayProductInfo.do?productNumber=IGNITEUXB

In my systems, I used Veritas and Ignite/UX's backup (both : make_tape_recovery & make_net_recovery).

So with additional backup method (with Ignite/UX), you will have the advantages using local tape drives for OS backups.

Hope this information can help you.

Cheers,
AW

[Elena Leontieva]

Thank you for sharing your opinions.