Backup software for Aix

[moetech]

Please excuse me if this is a stupid question. I am a AIX newbie.

I currently have an AIX server that uses Cactus Lone-Tar to backup to a local tape drive. I was wondering if I could load BakBone NetVault client for Aix also on this server to back up to a remote NAS and continue to use the Lone-Tar to keep backing up to a tape. Would this cause any problems? If it would, what kinds of problems might happen.

Thank you for your help!

 

[alexhu]

I know nothing about the products you intend to use, but are you sure you want to take this route?

How will you restore anything ?

Alex

 

[p5wizard]

Yes, you would probably want to do an mksysb or mkcd (if you have a cd-burner) from time to time to be able to reinstall AIX say after a disk crash replacement

Then whatever utility you have installed before making the mksysb would work again after having reinstalled it and you would be able to restore whatever backup you have made anywhere in your system/network I guess.

 

[alexhu]

p5wizard

I was more concerned he will have 2 steps to restore and the more steps you have the more chance for error

Alex

 

[p5wizard]

OK Alex,

But I was more concerned an mksysb tape/cd exists in the first place...

 

[moetech]

Thanks for the responses. One thing that I am not concerned about is backing up the OS. I just want to backup some data. If a disaster would happen and I would need to restore the data, I am gussing I would use the BaKBone Netvault software to restore the data. I am keeping the backup to the local tape drive. I want to backup to my NAS for disaster recovery purposes only.

 

[p5wizard]

If a disaster occurs and you no longer have your machine and need to rebuild a new one, then you should be concerned about backing up the OS, and now is as good a time as ever.

Note that all your tools that were probably installed somewhere in the OS filesystems (/usr/local e.g) will be on the mksysb tape/cd and will then reappear on the (new) server you are rebuilding... This makes it easier to restore data from wherever with whichever tool (which you had on your original server) to that newly rebuilt server.

Accidents will happen, disks do crash from time to time, SCSI adapters do sometimes corrupt data on SCSI buses and hence also on mirrored disks or even RAID groups.

Note mksysb does not have to be a tape or CD, can also be a NIM mksysb image. But then make sure you can get to the mksysb images on your NIM server in case of a disaster...

 

[moetech]

Thank you for your help! But please read my original question, that is what I need help with. I do backup the os to tape. If a disaster occur (I am talking fire/flood and destroys my office building)The data on my server is critical, not the os. The os can be reloaded. That is why I want to backup only the data offsite.

 

[p5wizard]

If you have enough time at night to copy your files to tape first and then to the NAS server I guess it is possible to just script the tape backup and NAS backup sequentially (Note I'm not familiar with netvault, but what I've googled just now -> seems ok)

If downtime must be kept as short as possible, you could start your tape backup and netvault backup simultaneously, I'm guessing that the NAS server backup will take less time than the tape backup so you should be allright. Might strain the disks some more, but if AIX IO subsystem has been given the space to work with, file I/O buffering in memory would take care of that...

OR

Perhaps you could just go for the NAS backup and let the NAS system take care of a secondary (DisasterRecovery) backup ==> less downtime for your application)


HTH - p5wizard