Dr. Kirby, We have used amanda for backup of about 65 workstations and servers for going on five years now here at corporate research for Goodyear. Currently, we backup about 700GB.
> We use amanda at the CSREES agency of U.S. Dept of Agriculture. We use it on > our Linux and unix servers. We back up approximately 30 Gigs of data with > it. > > Michael Martinez > CSREES/ISTM/USDA > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Gene Heskett [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2003 9:34 AM > > To: Dr. David Kirkby; Amanda Users > > Subject: Re: Who uses amanda? > > > > > > On Wed March 12 2003 06:59, Dr. David Kirkby wrote: > > >Can anyone tell me if they use amanda and are a large commercial > > >company (> 250 employees), a hospital or a university and if so how > > >much it's used (whole institution, small department, single server > > >etc). How many Gb do you back up (don't answer that if you feel its > > >confidential, or you don't know). > > > > > >I don't work in computer support but are aware there is a talk of > > >buying a Veritas backup package at academic discount (around 800 UK > > >pounds or $1300). I wanted to know if amanda would be a > > viable option. > > >I guess there are going to be issues bought up about support, > > >stability, the importance of backups etc. I'd like to know of big > > >organistations using the software and if they have compared it to > > >Veritas. > > > > You obviously have, in such a situation, a need for a library, and > > one with multimegabyte a second drives in it. This will be far > > more important in terms of getting the backups done in a timely > > manner in the wee hours than the software you use to accomplish > > that. > > > > Also far more costly than the software even if it was arkeia or > > veritas. > > > > But since amanda is a client/server setup, and the client can be > > told to do the compression, the next consideration would be the > > occupied network bandwidth while the backup is running. Using > > client compression can make night and day differences in the > > network loading and its general useability while the backup is in > > progress. You'll need at least 100baseT if its going to get well > > into the 10's of gigabytes per session. > > > > IMO amanda is a viable option, here's why: > > > > Support: I'd be willing to bet you'll get help here at least as fast > > as you'll get it from veritas, we're (some of us) awake all around > > the world on a 24/7/365 basis. Veritas keep office hours. > > > > Stability: I've been running the latest snapshots, and have yet to > > feel the need to come back to this list and report that > > snapshot-version-date so-and-so was busted for my little 2 machine > > home system. > > > > And we have been told that the United States Dept. of Agriculture > > has been using amanda for quite some time, and I believe that would > > qualify as a large organization. However, I'd expect that, except > > for the Washington DC offices, is a distributed in little > > autonomous pieces setup. > > > > >I looked at using amanda once for my home computer (Sun Ultra 80, > > >about 200 Gb of disk space over 4/5 drives, 40 Gb tape drive), but > > >decided that for such a small system, a couple of unix shell > > scripts > > >run by cron was all I needed, so never bothered using > > amanda. I know > > >shell scripts are currently used here but we intend > > expanding the disk > > >space by quite a lot. > > > > > >So basically: > > >a) I know little about amanda > > > > We were all there once :) > > > > >b) Have no intention of using it myself for my home computer, but > > >wonder if its a variable option in a university department (~100 > > >staff). > > > > Why not? For a home system, its a piece of cake. I have a 4 tape > > magazine drive, so I don't have the daily chore of remembering to > > change the tapes. Amcheck emails me to remind me it couldn't find > > the next tape it needs, half a day before its actually needed, so > > the responsibility of seeing to it the proper tapes are loaded is > > mine. Not too bad on an every 4th day schedule. Other than that, > > once up and running, that is the sum total of human intervention > > required to run amanda. If I had a 30 tape library, I could close > > the door and lock it, but then I do a 5 day cycle to get everything > > in a full, and have 28 tapes in the pool, so I have over 4 full > > fulls on hand at any one time. Paranoid maybe... > > > > Besides, doing it on your home system will automaticly make you an > > expert when the university deploys it. > > > > > > > >Dr. David Kirkby PhD, > > >Senior Research Fellow, > > >Department of Medical Physics, > > >University College London, > > >11-20 Capper St, London, WC1E 6JA. > > >Tel: 020 7679 6408 Fax: 020 7679 6269 > > >Internal telephone: ext 46408 > > >e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > >Web page: http://www.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/~davek > > > > -- > > Cheers, Gene > > AMD [EMAIL PROTECTED] 320M > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] 512M > > 99.24% setiathome rank, not too shabby for a WV hillbilly > > --- Wayne Richards Phone: 330 796-4462 Goodyear Tech Center Fax: 330 796-3947 Department 431A e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] PO Box 3531 Akron, OH 44309-3531 And one for the lawyers: This email may contain confidential/proprietary information and may not be copied or disseminated without the expressed written consent of the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.
