backup, best choice?

[alfonsogt]

dear friends:
I'm running informix on an hp-ux, and everymonth we make a special backup process named dbexport, which generates a directory, for example:

/backups/dbexp_date_of_today/...

into dbexp_date_of_today there are a lot of files and subdirs with also files and subdir inside

I want to backup this to a tape (in my case /dev/rmt0) if it is possible compressed.

What do you think it's better for me? tar, zip, cpio? or another solution?

Thanks in advance!
[sig][/sig]

 

[dbachpb]

Tar or cpio do the job. I use tar.
If you can afford it, you can buy Legato Networker or
Veritas solution, they are expensive but they offer an online backup agent for informix (or other rdbms).
If you cant afford these solutions, you may want to look at CTAR, which is a lot cheaper but does much less.
The Backup forum may be a better forum for your question.

Hope this helps

 

[ozzynator]

tar and cpio may be okay choices, if you're backups are under 2GB. Another option available to you would be fbackup. fbackup does not have the 2GB limitation and can allow you to span multiple tapes if needed.