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Glendyr
Asked: 2011-03-25 10:02:14 +0800 CST

archiving on tape under Linux

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I have a server with 8TB data, and a tape with high numbered 400GB tape cartridges. What would be the best solution to backup this server with the least effort ? I think after one full backup, I can make many increments on one 400GB tape. But how can I make the full backup across the tapes (with manual tape change), and how can I restore one file from the full backup and the increments ?

Is there any easy way to do that like disk based tar backup ?

backup linux tape

7 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Don't try and do it yourself. You should be using a program such as amanda or bacula to manage your backups.

    Use amanda when you don't have a tape library.

    Use bacula when you have a tape library available.

    mini rant follows

    Sure, just using dump or tar works and is simple.

    How easy is it to restore a certain file from a week ago? A month ago? How do you keep track of what's where? Remember, backups are easy, but restores are the important part.

    You can design a method to keep track of what's going on and do all that work yourself. Go ahead! Enjoy the pain when things get complicated. But what you gain from taking the short amount of time out of your schedule to configure amanda (okay, it's more for bacula, but it's more complex. Bigger investment, bigger setup, bigger return) you get back almost immediately. We use it for even single-server backup scenarios as it's so easy to set up and you gain what you spent many times over in the long run.

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  2. I'd certainly recommend full backups over incremental backups - it just saves so much pain!

    While you can do it with tar (at least the you can with the Gnu version of tar), I'd recommend using something a bit more robust - I like afio (unlike tar where you put files in an archive then compress the archive, afio compresses the file first then adds it the archive - a much more robust solution - and it will use any program you have available for compression!). It handles multivolume stuff.

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  3. As always with backups, "Best" refers to what you are backing up, why you are backing up (i.e. what your are trying to mitigate through backups), what tools you have, how much data, how often, retention policy, etc.

    I do use tar for mine. Amanda and Backula are too big/complicated IMHO for a single machine backup, but it all depends on the things listed above.

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  4. I've used all sorts of backups. Certainly Bacula is a reliable way to perform backups, but I think part of the question revolved around security and simplicity. It is harder to find an easier or more reliable means of backing up a file system than to use good old dump. (This presumes that you are using a file system supported by dump. According to tests done over the years, it is certainly better than tar which has few error correcting capabilities, and after an initial level 0 dump you can easily perform incremental backups.

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  5. Have look in this link has every small details for tap backup

    http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/linux-tape-backup-with-mt-and-tar-command-howto/

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  6. #!/bin/bash

INCR_LOG = "/var/log/increment.snar"
DAY_OF_WEEK = $(date +%u)

if [ $DAY_OF_WEEK = 0 ]; then
  rm $INCR_LOG;
fi

tar -cf archive-$DAY_OF_WEEK.tar --listed-incremental=$INCR_LOG /dir/to/be/backed/up

    Something similar to that, set it up to run everyday in crontab. Will make a weekly full backup and daily incrementals.

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  7. I would suggest to do full initial backup that spans multiple tapes and then do differential backups over 5-7 tapes on daily basis. When size of differential backup grows to fill a full tape take another full backup and start the cycle over. In your case it will be one full backup about once a year. You could use Amanda to set it up.

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