Subject: Backup Experiences Wanted

From: "M. Nicklaus" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 1 Sep 1999 17:44:29 -0400

Dear all,

This question is only indirectly Comp.Chem. related.  But since I'm sure
other Comp.Chem. groups are facing similar situations as far as backup
(needs) are concerned, here we go.

We have a setup with about 20 computers with a variety of Unix variants.
These range from nearly 10 Linux/AXP systems, through a few Linux/x86
machines, to several SGI workstations, one DEC AlphaServer, and even
the odd OpenStep system.  OS's used are Linux/AXP and Linux/x86, from
RedHat and Debian, with kernel versions from 2.0.xx to 2.2.xx, IRIX's
6.3-6.5, OSF/1 3.2c, OpenStep 4.2.  Total disk space on these systems is
currently on the order of 300 GB.  We expect this to double within the
next 12-18 months, and the number of machines is also likely to go up
substantially.

What I'm looking for is a unified backup solution for all these systems.
In fact, our needs range all the way from mirroring through backup to
archiving; but currently, the need for backup is the most urgent one.

So here's my QUESTION:  What kind of unified backup solution have people
found to actually *work* for a setup like this?

I'm asking both about the types of hardware used (AIT, DLT, Mammoth, tape
changers, RAID farms, CD-R, DVD-RAM, whatever...), as well the software
tools (tar, cpio, dump, taper, ftape, afio, Amanda, KBackup, Burt, Arkeia,
whatever...) that people are actually using and are happy with, both for
backing up and *restoring*.

I'm by no means wed to tape technology (we've actually had some bad
experiences with previous tape backups when it came to actually
*restoring* data), but looking at what's available on the market, it seems
that we're most likely to end up with a tape changer of some sort, hooked
up to a dedicated machine -- hopefully a Linux box.  This system would
back up all hard drives (as specified) of all other machines over the
network.  I'm open to any interesting alternatives to tapes that people
might report on.  If the (few) Windows 9x PCs we have could be tied into
this solution, that would of course not be detrimental.

We're also thinking about adding, or even entirely going to, RAID storage,
or other NAS/SAN setups.  But these are obviously only good in case of
disk crashes, not against user stupidity of the kind "I accidentally
deleted my entire project yesterday, can you please restore it?" unless
they're coupled with some kind of backup mechanism.

I'm looking for a solution that's easy to set up yet flexible, reliable,
expandable in the future, affordable on the hardware side, and, if
possible, free or low-cost on the software side.  Licence managers,
per-client licenses and the like are quite unwelcome.  I'd prefer a
solution that's also as little a security risk as possible; i.e., it
should not require root privileges all over the place.

If there's general interest, I'll be happy to post a summary.

Thanks in advance for all responses,

Marc

------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Marc C. Nicklaus                        National Institutes of Health
 E-mail: [email-masked]               Bldg 37, Rm 5B29
 Phone:  (301) 402-3111                  37 Convent Dr, MSC 4255       
 Fax:    (301) 496-5839                  BETHESDA, MD 20892-4255    USA 
      http://rex.nci.nih.gov/RESEARCH/basic/medchem/mcnbio.htm
    Laboratory of Medicinal Chemistry, National Cancer Institute
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