[BBLISA] Tape backup program for Debian?

[Douglas Alan]

Scott Ehrlich <scott at ehrlichtronics.com> wrote:

> I just installed the Sarge stable distribution of Debian on it and am
> looking for recommendations for a tape backup package/method.  I am
> familiar with tar and cron, but want to explore recommended
> options/alternatives.  The goal would be to perform a full backup, then
> incrementals.

We used to use Amanda, which is freeware, and were very happy with it,
as far as tape backups go.  Ultimately, we ended up switching to doing
rsync-based disk-to-disk daily snapshots, and we like this solution much
better than dealing with tapes.  The rsync-based solution can be
completely automated (no one has to remember to change tapes) and allows
for very easy restores.  Also with tapes, you always run the risk,
unless you are diligent in periodically doing test-restores, that there
is something wrong with your tape drive such that tapes seem to write
okay, but cannot actually be read when you need them.

This wiki page describes how we do our rsync-based backups with the help
of a relatively simple Python script:

   http://spacewiki.mit.edu/tiki-index.php?page=How+to+Do+Backups+with+Rsync

In a previous discussion on the topic, someone pointed out that there is
a fancy freeware Perl-based script for doing much the same.  It probably
offers all sorts of features that my much smaller script doesn't, but I
haven't looked into it because I'm happy with what we have, and I hate
Perl.

|>oug