RedHat backup

[tpfraz]

Hello, I have a server running RedHat 8 which I need to implement a backup procedure for.
We're thinking that a remote backup would be the best for our situation.
Does anyone have any advice as far as what to use?
Doesn't Redhat have some kind of backup software builtin?
Any help would be very much appreciated.
Thanks...

-Travis

[twang]

In my opinion, you need a tape drive if you have not a large budget. And the following is some backup utillities in linux:
Linux Backup and Restore
------------------------
Using tar
- used for creating archive files

- option:
c create archive
x extract file from archive
t view content of archive
j compress archive with bzip2
z compress archive with gzip

- example
make archive + gzip compression:
# tar cvzf /var/tmp/boot.tgz /boot
uncompress archive
# tar tf /var/tmp/boot.tar
extract files into a temp location:
# mkdir /tmp/untarred; cd /tmp/untarred
# tar xvf /var/tmp/boot.tar
# ls /tmp/untarred/boot

Using dump/restore
- backup/restore ext2/3 filesystem

- support full and incremental backups
eg.
# dump -u -f
# restore -rf

[tpfraz]

The reason that we're thinking of doing the backups remotely is because the server will be at a colocation spot. So we wouldn't be able to swap tapes every day at the site.

Is tar the best option for backups in Linux? Even for remote situations?
If so, does anyone know of any easily configurable and good scripts to use with tar?
What other options are there?
Thanks...

-Travis

[Stuart Browne]

Tar isn't the only option. There's things like 'cpio' and 'dump' which come out of the box, not to mention the 'amanda' routines (never used 'em).

Or you could go for a commercial product (backup edge, or cactus lone star), both of which can do remote system backups. BRU can aswell from the small amount of playing I've done.

If you're at a colo, you're probably paying for data out of your box. This will include your backup's don't forget, so you might want to only backup core thigns which chagne or are important (i.e. leave all the OS there, and only backup /etc/ and /home/ or something like that). Make the file local, compress it, then get that single file (hopefully small) out..

[Jerome Henry]

Hi,

Try mondo rescue, it's a great tool.
Basically, there is no confortable tool yet on any distro... still to be implemented, apart from the good old shell commands.
Mondo is at :
http://www.microwerks.net/~hugo/

hth

J

[Huc_1]

I would refrain from using dump on Linux since Patrick Van Humbeeck post this link

http://lwn.net/2001/0503/a/lt-dump.php3

I have a set of procedure to do full (in single user mode) daily and weekly all from contab at night to tape using dump but after reading the above link, I have planned to rewrite my backup scripts using Gnu tar.

I would also advice Mondo/mindi for it's ease of use

for thoses that can afford it I have tryed
arkeia at www.arkeia.com This is not freeware, but there use to be a demo to try it out "very much like Legato to me"

J-P

[Paulo A G Fessel]

Huc et alli:

Actually you can use a version of Arkeia ("Arkeia-Light") to backup up to 2 clients. This version can be freely used and has $0 tag price.

I've been using this solution successfully in the last 3 months.

HTH
Paulo Fessel

[Huc_1]

Nice to know and thanks, Paulo the only reservation I had with Arkeia is the Disaster Recovery, this is realy good for as a server/client general purpose but I feel Mondo is better in case of DR (where you lost your system disk)... but then a mix of the 2 could be very good indeed..humm

But the original question is " Doesn't Redhat have some kind of backup software builtin? "

Well on my RedHat 9.0 there is also Amanda, I have not try this but have read most of the documentation and this seem's like a very good tool indeed, probaly a bite hard to setup at first with many posible setup.

But still Mondo is handy, it could be compared with (HP UX)ignite, but the later is still more powerfull.

J-P

[I.Delic]

hi,

instead of using redhat you shuld use Suse Linux distribution.
Suse has a lot of nice tools to backup your system.

If you wish to use RadHad a sugest to instal amanda package on your system , It works good

succes

Idriz

[tpfraz]

Thanks for all the suggestions.
I read some of the documentation for Mondo and it says that it is geared more to be a disaster recovery tool but not really an every day backup kind of tool.
Has anyone used this as a normal, everyday (or nearly every day) backup tool?
I don't see why it wouldn't work alright.
I think it might say that only because other tools such as tar might be a bit faster and more efficient when running it on a daily basis.

-Travis

[Krishna Prasad]

Mondo can be used as both a DR and nightly backup tool.

I have restored the entire system or a few files from the mondo backups.

However, it is diffucult to schedule mondo backups via cron. You may be able to be creative with scripting and get it to work.
Mondo by default prompts for answers and waits for input from a user. Some suggestions to try the capture command.

You may also have an issue using a remote device?? I have only used mondo with local devices.

We will always use mondo for the DR advantages it gives us. However, on a day to day enterprise backup we will use DataProtector 5.1 from HP.