On Mon, 2005-05-30 at 08:14, Gérard Milmeister wrote: > I am looking for backup software for DDS tapes. Apart from tar, star, > cpio and their relatives I found taper (taper.sourceforge.net), which > seems perfect for my needs (single system backup). However this software > hasn't had an update for over 2 years, and since it uses a non-standard > (i.e., non-tar, non-cpio) format for its backup, it is uncertain that > backups will be retrievable in the mid to far future. Suggestions for > current solutions similar to taper would be welcome. First, whenever anyone mentions backups I have to recommend backuppc from http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/ because it is different from most and does a great job. However, while it has the ability to archive a machine off to tape it is really intended to keep online copies which are much easier to access. Bacula (http://www.bacula.org/) might be a good up to date choice but I haven't tried it. I've had amanda running virtually unattended for many years. It is somewhat cumbersome to set up but then all you ever have to do is change the tapes and it will save to disk if you forget that. It uses native dump or tape for the storage and includes instructions to access the data with the native tool if necessary, but keeps and index of the contents to make a restore easier if the index is still available when you need it. It's one weakness is that it will not split a single filesystem across multiple tapes, although it is very good at the reverse, grouping many hosts and filesystems onto the same tape and adjusting the mix of full and incremental runs for the best fit. -- Les Mikesell lesmikesell@xxxxxxxxx
