On Mon, 8 Apr 2002, Doug Silver wrote: > On Mon, 8 Apr 2002 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > > I've got a server farm of about 30 machines, most on various RedHat > > distributions, a few AIX. > > I have 3 tape drives, an 8, a 24 and a 40Gig, all HP DAT tapes. > > I have 10 physical backup tapes available for each drive. > > The tape drives are attached to 3 linux computers, Columbia, Frith & Coffee, > > respectively, which have Amanda 2.4.1p1 servers. All the clients are > > running either 2.4.1p1 or 2.4.2p2 . > > Questions: > > - is this a sane configuration? > > - is this a better configuration than throwing 3 tape drives on 1 amanda server? > > - is this a better configuration than just using 1 tape drive on 1 amanda server >(the 40, obviously) and using more tapes? > > - what would you recommend for the way to ease into backing up this lot? > > i.e. uncomment 1/2 of the disklist descriptions the first night, 1/2 the > > second, or 1/4 the first, for 4 days... or ??? > > > > > > You didn't specify why you might want to be using the 2 smaller tape > drives -- other than the drives are there and feel guilty about them > gathering dust ;)
Ah, guilt has something to do with it, but another factor is bandwidth and spreading out the load... And I was thinking, "Let's put all the technical configuration data like /etc, /boot, and so on to be backed up by one server, and the mail to another, and users' files to a third..." so it wouldn't be difficult to figure out which server to go to for a restore. Plus, we already have the tapes for the other drives... vs. buying new tapes for the 40Gb at $20 a pop. We have been having problems because the users' files and the mail files exceed the capacity of a single 40 Gig tape, so we can't seem to get it to do an initial backup of those filesystems to complete. One or the other, but not both. > However, if you can get more 40Gb tapes, using a single > drive would probably be the easiest route for you to go. As for the > distlist, you can do that or just let a few fail for the first few days > while Amanda adjusts to it's schedule. > > Sane? I wouldn't make a judgement on what is and isn't sane. You might > as well ask about vi vs emacs, bash vs tcsh .... Right... maybe I should have said "Do you think this is a workable idea?" and then, "How do you rate it compared to a single host backup?" My sanity is often called into question... John > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > Doug Silver > Network Manager > Urchin Corporation http://www.urchin.com > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > -- John Rodkey, Information Technology, Westmont College [EMAIL PROTECTED]