Just because your organization has gone to backups on multi-petabit NAS devices doesn't mean you don't have a use for AMANDA. You still need something to drive that NAS system and, I see nothing wrong with AMANDA for that purpose.
Yes, the NAS vendor (EMC?) is going to have a full blown software solution for you, complete with remote access administrative tools and a whole fleet of tech support genies to save your sorry keister when you do something stupid but,... if you have network access to storage space, so does AMANDA. Just do a tapeless configure that writes backups to the NAS. Up sides: you can get as broad or fine grained as you want and you have the ability to impose user quotas. Use a little bit of clever scripting and you have a means of rotating backup files so you only keep the most recent ### complete backup cycles. Down sides: I haven't thought of any yet. D. Keith Higgs <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> x0559 Case Western Reserve University, Webmaster - University Library Additional Information at http://www.cwru.edu/UL/ and http://keith.cwru.edu/ "Follow the white rabbit." > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of barryc > Sent: Thursday, March 13, 2003 11:35 AM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: tapes are doomed > > > While I am more than willing to grant that tapes are a LOT > more durable than > powered-down IDE drives, I'd still tend to frown on people > tossing backups of > critical information across the room. > > Before I decided to go with a DDS-3 system, I looked long and > hard at going the > backup-to-disk path. What finally sold me was the fact that > DDS-3 tapes can be > had for ~$5/ea if you know where to look. (and buy by the box) > > I don't have much data to back up (probably less than 50GB > atm) and spreading a > full backup across 5 tapes appeals to me. > > A number of companies make removable hard-drive racks with > IDE-to-USB2.0 bridges > built-in. One example is > http://www.enhance-> tech.com/products/ER4610UA.html . > (NOTE: > no affiliation. > That's just the first example I stumbled across via a > quick google. There's also people selling similar systems on Ebay) > > If your backup system supports USB, you can insert the drive > while your system > is running, turn the drive on (via the key), mount it, do > your backup, unmount > the drive, turn it off, and then remove it and put it in storage. > > >Whenever someone at work criticizes me for spending money on > LTO tapes > >when IDE drives are "cheaper", I just do the following: > > > > - Go grab a chip database archive tape off the shelf in the > > computer room. > > > > - Walk in their office, toss the tape across the office, they > > catch it (or not!), I ask them to toss it back, then I drop > > the tape on their desktop from a half-meter up. > > > > - Then I ask them if I can grab the hard disk out of their > > desk top computer and do the same schtick. No takers yet. > > > >This kind of (reletive) robustness is an admirable quality for media > >that are going to be transported back and forth from > off-site storage. > > > >I'm very glad cheap IDE disks are available to use for holdingdisk, > >though! That's a very good thing. > > > >
