Personally, I have a lot of data to backup, plus I serve a lot of data to other people. The tape drive was worth it to me. I bought a refurbished DDS-2 drive on ebay for $180 with a full Seagate warranty. Tapes are about $3. I have about 80GB of data to back up, but can split the data into small chunks that will fit on a DDS2 tape (~6GB w/compression). Amanda takes each slice and determines when in my 2-week cycle it should get a full backup. Each slice gets backed up incrementally each night and a full at least every two weeks. Works beautifully and has saved my ass several times.
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First book I've read that treats you like an experienced System Administrator. Not for the faint of heart or inexperienced. I really enjoyed it!
Personally, I have a lot of data to backup, plus I serve a lot of data to other people. The tape drive was worth it to me. I bought a refurbished DDS-2 drive on ebay for $180 with a full Seagate warranty. Tapes are about $3. I have about 80GB of data to back up, but can split the data into small chunks that will fit on a DDS2 tape (~6GB w/compression). Amanda takes each slice and determines when in my 2-week cycle it should get a full backup. Each slice gets backed up incrementally each night and a full at least every two weeks. Works beautifully and has saved my ass several times.