What Software Do You Use for Unix Backups?

jregel asks: "Linus has stated that dump should not be considered a reliable backup program, and both tar and cpio have their limitations. So what are Slashdot readers doing for backing up Linux servers and workstations? (you do backup, right?)" Given this bit of news, have you used anything other than the standard Unix staple to back up your Linux boxes? If you were forced off of tar, cpio and dump, what would you use as a replacement?

Comments

Easy.

[torpor]

If you were forced off of tar, cpio and dump, what would you use as a replacement?

I'd use dd of course...

dump on solaris...

[Polo]

You know, I was thinking about the same thing since I had problems with a recent restore from a compressed dump archive. I was missing some files probably because I ran the dump from an active file system.

I found out that solaris has a very interesting command: fssnap

It creates a read-only snapshot of your filesystem intended for backup operations.

You create a snapshot, dump the snapshot, then delete the snapshot and the dump is consistent.

I wonder if there's something like this for linux...

Amanda!

[nathanh]

I have been extremely happy with Amanda. Single centralised backup server running amanda-server. Multiple workstations running the amanda-client. Amanda automagically schedules backups based on sensible heuristics. I just tell Amanda how many tapes I have, how many workstations I have, and Amanda does all the hard work of working out how much tape capacity is required and how often it should schedule incrementals/fulls.

The server/client protocol has been designed to avoid reliance on dangerous security holes like rsh. The server sends the client a "send me your dump" message. The client then connects back to the server and delivers it the output from dump or tar. You can configure exclusion lists on the client if you're worried about sending certain files or filesystems. You can also encrypt the data stream and/or use Kerberos for authentication.

If I forget to load a blank tape then Amanda plays it safe. It doesn't overwrite last night's backup: instead it stores incrementals into the "holding disk". Amanda will then flush the held backups to the next blank tape.

Amanda emails me reports after every backup with a neat summary of what went right/wrong. It also gives you several hours advance warning if you forget to load a blank tape or if any of the workstations are offline.

The only downside of Amanda is that it is fiddly to setup. The documentation is poor and the configuration files are cryptic. But if you're willing to invest some time and effort then you can't do much better (for free) than Amanda.

afbackup

[Vairon]

Website URL: http://sourceforge.net/projects/afbackup/
Features:

• Server & Client programs
• Supports multiple clients streaming backups at the same time
• Webmin module for easy configuration
• Support for many tape drives and autoloaders
• SSL and DES encryption support
• Remote or local start of backups
• Compatible with most *NIX systems (personally used it with Linux, Solaris & FreeBSD)
• Non-root users can restore their own files
• Unlike AMANDA:afbackup can actually append to tapes

For those who don't know: AMANDA cannot append to tapes.
Every time you backup with AMANDA it must start from the beginning of the tape.
So, if you want backups every day, you must have a tape for every day.
(http://amanda.sourceforge.net/fom-serve/cache/29. html

Re:afbackup

[martin]

amanda doesn't append to tapes so there is not possibility of blowing away that tape. This is a problem I've experienced with other commercial software that appends to a tape each run - tape write error and it marks the entire tape bad. which means you have to scrap the entire entire tape and start again.

Also tisk of appending is loss of tape or drive due to environmental factors - fire/flood (plane being driven into data centre).

I cannot be forced off tar

[mnmn]

They say tar has its limitations. I really dont understand.

Ive worked with different unixen and Linux distros, so I just dont want to be dependant on something that isnt installed by default everywhere. tar already has a VERY well known format and execution parameters.

Ive lost my fair share of data to buggy harddrives and dumb mistakes like pulling off the ide cable while the system is running. So cron does daily backups using tar cfj using a file that has a list of other files to be backed up. This way I dont have to backup the whole partition. To restore a certain file, just tar xvfj backup2.tar.bz2 /pathtofile --root=/

The cron setup renames backup.bz2 to backup2.bz2 and removes backup2.bz2 so I have the data for the past two days. Beside incremental backup which I dont need due to this setup, what else could I need? And by the way the backup.bz2 is copied off onto an NFS share elsewhere incase my whole RAID setup crashes, or the XFS filesystem bombs out. This setup can be replicated onto FreeBSD Solaris and many others.

Try star by J�rg Schilling

[Corporate Gadfly]

Some people have already mentioned Amanda.

In addition to amanda, I have good luck with star coded by Jörg Schilling. star is very feature-rich, fast, standards compliant and has been around since 1985. Give it a try!

The star-users mailing list is here . You can also look at the man page and finally download it