I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions on good backup hardware/software solutions. I'm looking to replace a 4/8 GB tape drive on a Linux server. Currently I use that drive with the hostdump.sh script (forget where I got it, but I'm sure I'm not the only one familiar with it).
I want to replace it with something that a) works (the drive is a bit old and just not really working right anymore) and b) can back up multiple machines/platforms. I have some legacy Windows boxes that have important stuff on them too, and I want to pull in data from them to the Linux box and dump it all from there to a backup. For software, I have done some looking at Amanda and BRU. I also checked out Veritas (because it was bundled with one of the drives I looked at), but it seems to be Windows-only from what I could tell, and that is not the right solution. Thing is, I've never used either Amanda or BRU (and BRU's Windows 2000/XP client is in beta, according to their web site, which normally wouldn't bother me, but when backing up important data, it _has_ to work). Anyone have any experience? For hardware, like I said, it's currently a tape drive, and replacing it with another tape drive isn't a problem, though they are getting harder to find. I had one person suggest I look at DVD instead of tape, which isn't a bad idea, but I don't know how Amanda or BRU would play with that (also I think his real motivation was that he had DVD to sell and no tape, and really didn't understand that tape isn't nearly as dead in the corporate world as his little retail brain thinks it is - his employer shall remain nameless other than to say it was not Staples, just so no one thinks I'm slamming Cameron. ;-) ). Does anyone have experience using DVD as a backup medium? Or maybe a store that has experience and knowledge in corporate backup solutions, and who understand the people really do still use tape drives? Thanks in advance for any suggestions. Ian
