*BSD News Article 50514


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From: mhoule@access.awinc.com (Michael Houle)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.misc
Subject: backup system design on Solaris 1.1
Date: Thu, 31 Aug 95 17:19:53 PST
Organization: A & W Internet Inc.
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Hello UNIX people :

I am in the process of re-visiting my office's backup system
due to an increase in storage space. 

In the past, We would backup all data filesystems each nite. Completely !

Now, we have about 7 GB of space. If this space is used fully, I will
not be able to do a straight dump of all data. There isn't enough time
in the evenings for our evening staff to complete that much storage
dumping.

We are using a 2.3 GB DAT drive for backups. The way I see it, I am faced
with a choice between an incremental backup system (which I like) vs. 
doing one filesystem a night (we have 5 ). This would result in a backup
system that backs up all data essentially once a week. This is not very
appealling. A weeks worth of work is a lot to lose if data is lost. 

I like the incremental backup system idea and know how to implement one.
I would use the find command in conjunction with tar and a TIMESTAMP file
to facilitate the incremental functionality. Unfortunately, A monthly 
backup would have to be completed and this would take approx 5 hours. 
This is not so bad considering the dump command and the operator group. 
But our evening staff are novice UNIX users and I am not going to give
away the su password so easily. 

To use tar or cpio as a backup system, the root account must be used or
not all data is backed up. 

Do you see my dilemna ? Any suggestions ? Any innovative backup software
out there for doing backups on Solaris 1.1 ?

Please reply via EMAIL to mrh@tfic.bc.ca

Thanx in advance.

Mike.