We in IBM Israel research labs implemented a totally automated AFS backup
systems where is no operator intervention is required.
We are using IBM ADSTAR Distributed Storage Manager software for backing up
our AFS cell as a flat filesystem.
We are using ADSTAR version 1.2 for more then 5 month and before we used WDSF
for more then 1 year , without any problems.
But ADSM has no knowledge of AFS volumes, so if you lose a
disk drive, you have to figure out what volumes were on there, then what
parts of the /afs filesystem was represented by those volumes, then re-create
the lost volumes, then copy in the missing bits of data from the filesystem
including mountpoints.
The technique that we use :
1) incremental backup of the /afs/{cell} filesystem each night.
So if a user loses some files, he can quickly retrieve them from the ADSM
server at the latest level.
Using ADSM you can set any backup policy,include/exclude list,# of versions
for files,schedule,security and more ...
2) run a weekly process that issues a "vos dump" for every volume in the
cell in turn, you then compress the dump image, use ADSM to archive that
compressed dump image, then delete the image. That way you can safely
restore all volumes from ADSM after a disk crash, and if the data is part
of what you additionally backup each night, you can then update your
volumes with yesterday's backup info.
3) same as 2 but the dump image is compressed to 8mm tape , this process run
every night on different volumes. We just put 8mm tape before we leave home
and a crontab entry is doing the rest.
Regards,
Komar Gil
IBM Israel Sicence and Technology Ltd....... Haifa 31905 ............... Israel
Internet: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Vnet: kgil at haifasc3..............
Telephone: 01-972-4-296209..........................Fax: 01-972-4-296114-296114
