Backups on SCO Server

[dbm7230]

I just started a new job with a company that has a SCO Unix box. They do not have any other software applications running to do their backups. The only backup that had been done was a simple tar. Does anyone know if the SCOADMIN Backup utility is a good one to perform and if you can do it unattended? HELP?? Thank you very much!!!

 

[crowe]

whats wrong with tar ?

crowe

 

[dbm7230]

Hi Crowe,

Nothing is wrong with tar, however I have been searching the SCO documentation and ran across fbackup. I tested it today in cron, however it looks like it only lets you backup 1 filesystem at a time. I'm not sure, can you tell me which one would be best if I am backing up more than 1 filesystem?

Thanks again...!!!

 

[dbm7230]

Ooopps... Correction, I meant to say "cbackup". Also we originally wanted to do incremental backups through the week, then do a full backup on the weekend. I don't think you can do that with tar. Does anyone have any information on BackupEdge software by Microlite? We have the software and I am thinking about implementing it.

Thanks again...

 

[2ffat]

I've used tar, the admin backup, BackupEdge, BRU, and Lone-tar. The problem with tar and most admin backups are they DO NOT VERIFY the data after the backup. You won't know if the backup is valid until you try to restore it. I found that out the hard way.

BackupEdge, BRU, and Lone-tar are the best, IMHO, backup packages available for Unix. The last time I used BRU, I had to modify scripts while the other two were menu driven. That may have changed since. Of the three, I like Lone-tar a little better. It not only had menus but scripts that could be modified, too. You could things both ways. Also, and this was the big one, Lone-tar has "Air-Bag" for SCO.

Air-bag allows the user to create a series of bootable disks that contained a copy of the OS as the user had on the hard drive. If the hard drive is trashed, the user can put in a new hard drive, boot from the floppies, and restore the OS and data. Some dealer used this to create SCO boxes en-masse.

I think that BackupEdge also has something similar now. I'm not sure if BRU is even available now. We still use BRU on our old DG box so you know it was a solid performer.

All three verify the data afterwards. They compare the data on the backup device to the data hard drive after the backup. Again, Lone-tar was the easiest to set up. I could tell Lone-tar to skip temp files, spoolers, etc. that would change between the backup and the verify. BackupEdge was harder to do this on, and BRU only allowed different levels of verification. Again, things may have changed since the version I used. James P. Cottingham

When a man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. But let him sit on a hot stove for a minute and it's longer than any hour. That's relativity.
[tab][tab]Albert Einstein explaining his Theory of Relativity to a group of journalists.

 

[dbm7230]

Thanks for the insight. I have since found a copy of BackupEDGE sitting in the computer room that was never implemented. I have read over the documentation and plan on installing it once I get the approval to do so, which I don't think is a problem. I have not had any problem running the "cbackup" but I have been trying to test restorals from it using "cpio" which is giving me grief when I try to restore 1 file from tape and put it in another location. If you can help me with that, that would be great. Otherwise, I'll let you know how I like BackupEDGE once I get it going.

Thanks for your feedback!