SCO software backup options

[Guest_imported]

I was wondering if anyone could let me know of what backup software is available for SCO Unixware 7.1. I purchased a HP tape drive, but the software included is for Windows and Linux only. If there is a way to get this software to work, that would be good also.

It would be good to get a selection of free and commercial products as well as your recommendations.


Thanks for your help.

 

[pcunix]

Unlike Windows, you don't need any manufacturer supplied software to use a tape drive. You can use tar or cpio. On Unixware, tape devices are in /dev/rmt/ ( "man 7 tape" for what the names mean)

Some versions come with Arcserve installed. I personally think that's utter crap, but some people like it. The Arcerve commands
as_devmgr -deviceinfo 2
as_devmgr -tapeinfo 2

would give you info about a SCSI tape at id 2.

If you have Arcserve, it owns the tape drive, and you'll need to disable it, temporarily or permanently to use any other backup tool.

To disable it permanently, you'll need to remove or edit (by adding an exit 0 at the beginning of the file) the /etc/rc2.d/S69ARCserve. To stop the server temporarily (for example, because you want to do a simple cpio backup or restore) use "astop". It shouldn't be a big surprise to learn that "astart" will start it up again.

You can also edit /usr/lib/ARCserve/tapesvr.cfg and remove the semicolon before NO_DEVICE_LOCKING - doing this lets ARCserve run but prevents it from taking control of the tape.

Now for the better commercial products, I strongly recommend using one of the Suprtars. See

http://pcunix.com/Reviews/supertars.html

These are MUCH better than anything else.

Tony Lawrence
SCO Unix/Linux Resources

http://pcunix.com

tony@pcunix.com

 

[tep0583]

I agree with pcunix. We use lonetar with most of our installs and it works quite well.

 

[Guest_imported]

I run 13 SCO Unix systems for Public Health in the state of GA. If you are interested in easy backups that anyone can be trained to do and reliable restores, consider LoneTar backup software. I have actually replaced the main drive and done a restore from scratch. Just boot from your pre-prepaired floppy and restore the Master backup. This restores Unix and all. The system will boot and run as if it were never down.

RBower

 

[edfair]

Trained to do? Cron doesn't need to be trained. Both lone-tar and backupedge set up cron to do the backup. All you have to do is edit the file to set the time. And educate the users to pull the tape in the morning and put in the next one. And in the state of Georgia, that is a problem. Ed Fair
efair@atlnet.com

Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply.

Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.