[geeks] DVD based backup software

[Charles Shannon Hendrix]

Sat, 26 Aug 2006 @ 17:36 -0500, Phil Brutsche said:

> One of the biggest failings of all this open-source stuff is backup
> software that:
> 
> a) sucks for home users
> b) is too complicated
> c) both a and b

True.

I don't really mind complication or complexity if it really does
something, but often it seems to just be kind of messy.

I also would prefer that software didn't require you to configure parts
that you won't use.

Over the years I've had to frequently configuration tape drive setups
for software that will never be using tape drives, simply because it
would not function otherwise.  

(GRUMBLE)

> Windows and Mac users get stuff like EMC Retrospect or Norton Ghost.

EMC Retrospect, from everything I have heard, went downhill after
version 6.5.  The reports are that it is not reliable, including
verification and compression, and that EMC tech support is not
helpful.

Today I tried to find some Windows DVD backup software for someone, and
the situation isn't quite as rosy as I would have thought.  A lot of the
software seems pretty bad to me, and quite a bit failed during either
backup or restore.  That's pretty scary.

I read reviews of all the stuff I could find on the shelves at Best Buy
and CompUSA, and all of it got bad marks by reviewers, particarly citing
restore failures.  That's pretty much what they are for...

So, I'm still looking there too.  I need something for an end user that
can do multi-volume to DVD, and would prefer the files not require the
software to restore with.  Bare metal recovery not necessary, just save
the data reliably.

If anyone has recommendations, let me know.  

I guess I could find an old release of Restrospect, but I want to look
around more first.

Symantec supposedly makes good backup software, but I think the list
price was $999.

Norton Ghost: can it to multi-volume PC backups, including media
spanning and incrementals?  I've not had time to look at it, and the
last version I ever used at work only did mirroring and that sort of
thing.

> What do Linux or *BSD have?  tar/pax/whatever and rsync.

Those packages aver VERY good at creating archives, as long as the
destination is a filesystem or a tape drive.  They just never did get
changed to support new media.

Maybe what we really need is to break the device handling out of those
programs, and have a backend that streams to whatever is needed.

I tried to write a backend for CD/DVD burning, and it mostly worked, but
it get complicated since a lot of archiver software either doesn't like
to be turned off during the burn, or otherwise gave me grief.  On top of
that, you have to be very certain the burns worked and handle the errors
when they don't. (i.e. retry a volume until it works, or the whole
backup is likely bad).

I'm still thinking about writing something, but I could use that time
for better things if something else was already out there.

The rest of today I'll probably look at a few things I've found and see
how they pan out.

> *grumble*grumble*grumble*

Ditto.

Right now I do this:

	- desktop PC runs rsnapshot of all LAN hosts to an external drive
	- CDs and DVDs are used for snapshots of things like source
	  archives

Now I need something multi-volume to generate archives of larger chunks
and do incrementals.

> (in case anyone hasn't looked, both the products I mentioned can do
> bare-metal recovery using only a boot cd and a USB or firewire-attached
> hard drive.  Try that with Linux or *BSD without being a sysadmin)

I personally don't think much of most bare-metal recovery.  

I feel more comfortable when it is possible to do a bootstrap and data
restore to get a system back up and running.

You should be able to do that anyway, and often it is no harder than a
bare-metal recovery system.

It scares me how many shops could not bootstrap new systems to take over
their work.  That's just scary.


-- 
shannon "AT" widomaker.com -- ["And in billows of might swell the Saxons
before her,-- Unite, oh unite!	Or the billows burst o'er her!" -- Downfall
of the Gael]