[geeks] Linux tape backup help

[Mark Benson]

On 14 Jan 2010, at 11:26, der Mouse <mouse at Rodents-Montreal.ORG> wrote:

> mt fsf N, where N is the number of files on the tape, then write.  Or,
> if you want to append to a single tape file, mt fsr N where N is the
> number of records on the tape.

Thanks. I'll give that a shot.

> At least, assuming the tape fits the usual Unix tape model.  Not all
> tapes do (eg, quarter-inch cartridges); you say "LTO3", but I don't
> recognize that enough to say anything useful about it.  Might be worth
> experimenting with a scratch tape.

The drive is a Quantum Ultrium 3 Tabletop drive on 68-pin SCSI. LTO3  
is 400/800GB tape based on LTO standards which are used by HP, IBM and  
Sony (I think??).

AFAIK these drives operate in the standard UNIX tape model. Quantum  
recommend standard tools for use in Linux such as mt and st and  
include a stinit.def for use with the Linux mt-st package. That's as  
much as I can tell you.

> Size?  You'll have to deal with your backup software for that.  Some  
> of
> them can give you estimates, of varying degrees of accuracy.  (You say
> "tar", but there are many variants of tar, with disparate
> capabilities.)

I am using the Ubuntu Linux (likely Debian related) variant in this  
case. I don't know how much that'll mean to you if you use something  
different.

> It's relatively easy to figure out how big the backup was, ie, after
> the fact, but for this you want to know how big it will be, ie, before
> the fact.  Historical data might be enough, but also might not - I
> don't know enough about your environment.

The server is essentially a Ubuntu LAMP environment with samba and dns  
facility added. The mainstay of the backup will be httpd files (php  
HTML and js source and images) and a set of MySQL 5.0 dump files to  
preserve the database data. Also I will backup the servers config to a  
destination that will be backed up and may backup selected /home/*  
folders, but only if I deem it totally necessary - we don't rely on  
the servers for storage, only for services and tape backup. I am not  
forseeing any large growth soon but ultimately that may happen hence  
the large tapes, one never knows!

I don't know if all that adds any info that might help

-- 
Mark Benson

http://markbenson.org/blog
http://twitter.com/MDBenson