following scenario: The data from the file and print servers is synchronised in the night via rsyc to some cheap servers with fat disk
Amanda with client side compression (the default setup for many people) can achieve the same effect (although not as efficient as rsync, but not that far either). Amanda spreads out the backup over the dumpcycle so that each night it has to do about the same amount of work.
I know, it's a different approach than many (most?) other backup schemes, but in reality this work very well.
The holdingdisk feature of amanda (your "fat disk") is an integral part of the system, and makes it possible to start many (slow) backups in parallel, and, at the same time, writing to the tapedrive in top speed.
(Of course your other reasons to use your planned setup with storeBackup, fast/easy restores by users etc are still valid. And
indeed, rsync can mirror your filesystems even faster.)
decision up to know about this. -> So, amanda has a lot of time to do the backup, there are only a few clients (with big storage) to the servers (with the robots) and perhaps we can use less robots because we will not do a daily backup.
Beware that Amanda works faster/better with many smaller clients than with few big clients. There can be more done in parallel if you have more clients.
About 6 years ago, I worked in an environment with 8 big servers and each had a tape drive dedicated. The backup, with a home made script, took about all night on some systems, just completed in time before the first people started coming in. Then I switched companies, and learned about Amanda. In my current config I do my daily backups with 1 tape drive and I have about 25 servers (big and small) + 12 MSWin systems to backup. The total amount to backup is 12 times more than before. And my backup time each night takes only 3.5 hours.
I also have an "archive" run each weekend (only full backups) to 2 drives (+ one flush on a third tape on monday morning). This takes only 8.5 hours. However, if I had to serialize all those backups it would take 42 hours. Amanda makes it possible to squeeze those 42 hours in less than 9 hours.
If someone told me that 6 years ago, I wouldn't believe him.
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