[geeks] Backup software (yeah, yeah, I know)

[Shannon Hendrix]

On Apr 8, 2009, at 10:02 , Phil Stracchino wrote:

> You know, you could do this with Bacula by backing up to disk volumes
> set for a maximum size of 4.7GB, then burning the volumes to DVD.

...and if you get hungry, you could always rip off a limb and fry it,  
or if you want to use single-layer DVD, then fry before ripping it off.

:)

Anyway, the problem here is that he's living on a laptop, and might  
not have a series of 4.7GB chunks of space free.

What he probably needs is a program that create the volumes in  
realtime so it only uses one image at a time, or even better streams  
the data to the DVD.

I still marvel that there is almost nothing like this in the UNIX  
world, given the massive suckitude of available backup media.

I used to use a program called cddump which automatically split  
backups across CDs, and only took up at most one image worth of space  
at a time.

I modified it to run with DVDs, but it was a horrid Perl script that  
was hard to maintain and needed a big rewrite.  The author abandoned  
it and so did I.

I've never found anything else that works, and isn't something you  
need a staff to maintain.

Things like Bacula and Amanda are massive overkill for most people,  
and they are really annoying and inflexible to set up.

That said, Amanda does work really well from what I hear, and I think  
there is now an easier version available, but it requires Solaris.



-- 
"Where some they sell their dreams for small desires."