LInux advance server backup

[Ragni Singh]

Hi All, I have a couple of advance servers and we need to start doing backups for. Unfortunately we don't have a tape drive for it. What are some other possibilites that I can possibly use to backup my linux systems. I do have HP-UX but I believe doing a new make recovery is out of the questions. Thanks for your help and points will definitely be given.

[Kodjo Agbenu · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Personally, I make a difference between backup/restore and disaster recovery.

The first one is used to retrieve files or subdirectories, but not necessarily to reconstruct the whole system.

The second one is used in case of a crash in order to rebuild the operating system from scratch.


For the first method, you need a backup utility. Most of professional backup software products use client/server architecture. Hence, you don't need the tape drive to be physically attached to the Linux servers. You can backup them via the network to a remote tape server.
Most of the following commercial products can do the job : HP OmniBack, Veritas NetBackup, Legato Networker, Arkeia...
There is also a free software named amanda, but you may need to recompile it on Hp-ux.

The second method needs a specifically designed tool, generally OS-specific (like make_recovery).
For Linux, I can suggest mondo rescue :

http://www.microwerks.net/~hugo/

This utility can generate ISO images than can be downloaded to a remote computer and burned to a set of CD-R/RW.

Good luck.

Kodjo

[Alexander M. Ermes]

Hi there.
The first posting is good advice.
What i have configured on different systems :

HP-UX

HP-UX Ignite Tape ( make_recovery ) for disasters ( boot disks / VG00 which sould be mirrored anyway )

Data : backup with HP OmniBack

Specific backups with cpio or tar

Linux

Image of system burned to a CD
data backup with tar or cpio

Rgds
Alexander M. Ermes

[Stephane Audureau]

Hey ,

Just for information ,
Mondo / Mindi doesn't work properly under
woody 3.00 debian distro.
We have tested it for long time and submitted
bugs to the sourceforge team project.
Fot complete information , we uses DLT VS80 HP under LP200R HP machines for backup , we don't have tested it with a cd burned image

Cheers Stephane