[clue-tech] Multiple system backups

[David L. Anselmi]

Angelo Bertolli wrote:
[...]
> Bacula had the advantage of allowing network backups without generating 
> an ssl key since it uses its own client/server software.  However bacula 
> really is geared more toward tapes and implicitly requires some kind of 
> volume management or pool.  That's ok, because I figured I could enforce 
> a max size of 2 GB on volumes, and then burn them from the hard drive to 
> DVD.

I disagree that it's geared towards tape.  Obviously it has extra 
functionality that you need to use tape.  But I use it on disk and a 
pool is just a file.  Handy to break up backup files by machine but 
there's no need to go beyond the defaults.

> I uninstalled bacula and tried the others because I figured that I 
> didn't really want automated backups anyway.

If your hardware is on, you do.  My workstation backup isn't automatic 
because I leave it and my USB drive off usually.  Bacula works fine for 
manual backups.

> What I'm trying to come up with is something that:
> 
> * is simple and straightforward, and allows me to backup only certain 
> parts of the directory tree
> * can be run whenever I feel like backing up all of my computers
> * burns the backups to DVD (although not necessarily directly--a copy on 
> my second drive is fine)
> * makes restoring certain files easy

What are your restore scenarios?  Are you using DVDs as removable 
storage, or are you archiving long term?

I've used CDs for backup before and they weren't very reliable. 
Identifying when a backup didn't work (and recovering), or when a CD was 
worn out and needed replacing was problematic.  Perhaps top end media 
would help (see Sean R. on BLUG recently).  USB (or other removable) 
hard drives are much nicer and not much more than top quality media + 
writer.

I've done the custom backup script (back before USB drives and backup 
software that could use CDs).  I won't ever do it again.  It isn't bad 
for one machine, after you've identified and handled all the failure 
modes.  But adding a machine to Bacula takes < 5 min.  Individual 
scripts just don't scale.

Dave
_______________________________________________
CLUE-tech mailing list
CLUE-tech at cluedenver.org
http://cluedenver.org/mailman/listinfo/clue-tech