Backup question for RedHat Samba Server

[Robert Meyer]

I have never been a fan of using tar for backups.  Older versions didn't
preserve
special files, etc. so it was difficult to get a system back together.  I've
used
dump/restore for a long time and it has never failed me.  Note that this is
for disaster recovery, not archival storage.  Picking individual files out
of a dump set is somewhat more difficult than tar.  Newer versions of
gnu tar are much better at preserving devices, fifos, etc. so it might be
easier.  How much storage are we talking about backing up, here?

I know that all versions of 'tar' have allowed for multiple tapes by
allowing the ability to specify things like the tape densities, lenghts, etc.
Newer versions actually detect the end of media and prompt for media
changes.

If you're working in an enterprise environment, I'd recommend one of the
big backup systems like Legato Networker or Veritas.  For small environments,
it's generally better to homebrew something that fits the environment.  If the
requirement is to be able to simply restore a file that a user has whacked,
then
'tar' is probably the right choice.  If you're looking to be able to recover a
system that has crashed it's drives, then dump/restore is probably a better
option.

Hope that's sufficiently informative to completely muddy the decision
making process :-)

Cheers!

Bob
--- arctic 91 <arctic91 at Buffalo.com> wrote:
> Hello,
>    Well since most of my testing is down for the migration to Samba off of
> Novell, one big question I have is for backups. We always use Tar on our unix
> web server. Is this going to server us well for a File server? I know through
> webmin it has a file system backup with dump, has anyone used that at all?
> The drives will have multiple mounts for the system, isn't it true with tar
> you need a seperate tape per mount? Any information would be greatly
> appreciated. 
> 
>    Carl

=====
Bob Meyer
Knightwing Communications, Inc.
36 Cayuga Blvd
Depew, NY 14043
Phone: 716-308-8931 or 716-681-0076
Meyer_RM at Yahoo.com

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