Hi, I need to backup data to an HP autoloader, it needs to be *full* backups each time so using Amanda doesn't make sense.
Can someone point me to what utilities to use to access the autoloader, I would rather read up on this myself as my knowledge here is very weak. I am moving this unit from a windows environment running Backup Exec. I know all of those features won't be available but I was hoping to control in some predictable manner what tapes are used in what order to effectively partition the loader.
Thanks, jlc
I need to backup data to an HP autoloader, it needs to be *full* backups each time so using Amanda doesn’t make sense.
Can someone point me to what utilities to use to access the autoloader, I would rather read up on this myself as my knowledge here is very weak. I am moving this unit from a windows environment running Backup Exec. I know all of those features won’t be available but I was hoping to control in some predictable manner what tapes are used in what order to effectively partition the loader.
i would still use amanda for this - that was she can look after the tape order etc and she can control mtx to use the robot.
in the amanda.conf just have the number of tapes set to 1 so that she knows each night has to be a complete level0 or in your disk list state level0 every time.
On Fri, 18 Jan 2008 at 9:59am, Tom Brown wrote
I need to backup data to an HP autoloader, it needs to be *full* backups each time so using Amanda doesn’t make sense.
Can someone point me to what utilities to use to access the autoloader, I would rather read up on this myself as my knowledge here is very weak. I am moving this unit from a windows environment running Backup Exec. I know all of those features won’t be available but I was hoping to control in some predictable manner what tapes are used in what order to effectively partition the loader.
i would still use amanda for this - that was she can look after the tape order etc and she can control mtx to use the robot.
in the amanda.conf just have the number of tapes set to 1 so that she knows each night has to be a complete level0 or in your disk list state level0 every time.
Actually, you would use "dumpcycle 0" to get amanda to do full backups every run. tapecycle should still be set to however many tapes you have -- anything other than that and you lose amanda's ability to track the tapes for you.
Actually, you would use "dumpcycle 0" to get amanda to do full backups every run. tapecycle should still be set to however >many tapes you have -- anything other than that and you lose amanda's ability to track the tapes for you.
-- Joshua Baker-LePain QB3 Shared Cluster Sysadmin UCSF
After reading through all the replies, it might be simple enough to use Bacula or Amanda. I had never seen Bacula before, and I have not found detailed info for Amanda and Autoloaders (Never used Amanda before).
What is simpler to use, Bacula or Amanda? Depending on that, I will look into either of those solutions.
Thanks everyone! jlc
On Fri, 18 Jan 2008 at 12:21pm, Joseph L. Casale wrote
Actually, you would use "dumpcycle 0" to get amanda to do full backups every run. tapecycle should still be set to however >many tapes you have -- anything other than that and you lose amanda's ability to track the tapes for you.
After reading through all the replies, it might be simple enough to use Bacula or Amanda. I had never seen Bacula before, and I have not found detailed info for Amanda and Autoloaders (Never used Amanda before).
The amanda changer script for use with mtx is chg-zd-mtx. In that file itself you'll find instructions on how to set it up -- it's rather straightforward.
What is simpler to use, Bacula or Amanda? Depending on that, I will look into either of those solutions.
I'm not really sure that one is easier than the other -- both have a learning curve. I lean (rather heavily) towards amanda because of its scheduling capabilities, but you're not intending to use those. The other nice thing about amanda is the ability to get to your backed up data in the complete absence of the amanda tools. You can use basic *nix utilities (mtx, mt, dd, and tar or restore) to get the bits off of your backup media, which is rather handy in disaster scenarios.
Joshua Baker-LePain wrote:
On Fri, 18 Jan 2008 at 12:21pm, Joseph L. Casale wrote
...
I use a simple script with tar.
The core is:
cd / tar cvlbf 512 /dev/nst0 \ --multi-volume --new-volume-script /usr/local/bin/mtxnext \ --ignore-failed-read \ . >$LOGDIR/root_$BACKUPDATE.log 2>&1
The mtxnext script contains:
#!/bin/bash
echo start of mtxnext date /usr/sbin/mtx status echo mtxnext switching tape /usr/sbin/mtx next if test $? -ne 0 then exit 1 fi echo mtx next done, wait for tape at `date` /usr/local/bin/waittapeload if test $? -ne 0 then exit 1 fi /usr/sbin/mtx status date echo mtxnext ended exit 0
and waittapeload contains:
#!/bin/bash
# wait for tape to be loaded:
count=1 tapeloaded=0
until test $count -gt 600 -o $tapeloaded -eq 1 do mt -f /dev/nst0 status | fgrep -q "BOT ONLINE" if test $? -eq 0 then tapeloaded=1 fi count=`expr $count + 1` sleep 1 done if test $tapeloaded -eq 1 then exit 0 else exit 1 fi
The main script does a tar of /boot followed by a tar of /
Easy and simple.
Mogens
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Joseph L. Casale -
Joshua Baker-LePain -
Mogens Kjaer -
Tom Brown