On Tue, 1 Mar 2011 17:16:32 +0100 Gour <g...@atmarama.net> wrote: > Hello, > > I'm an Archlinux user planning to migrate to Free/PCBSD soon. At the > moment I use Bacula to backup my desktop machine and another (old) > laptop. > > Moreover, I've collection of archived (scanned) slides and video files > which are archived on (atm) 12 LTO-2 tapes with more tapes to be > filled in the future. > > So, considering the above backup hardware (HP Ultrium 448 tape drive) > and my backup needs, I wonder whether Amanda might be better option > for me?
It might; see below. I have not experimented with Bacula in a long time. I trust it has improved. > > When I say 'better' I think about the following: > > a) ease of setup and admin work required to maintain the setup > > I did configure Bacula, created 3 different Catalogs (video, slides, > desktop). but I lost in the past my configuration and had to scan all > the tapes to restore catalog files which are atm stored in Postgresql > database which is another extra requirement to admin. (Let me say that > I keep Postgresql just for the Bacula needs. > > How does Amanda compare here? > > b) tools for working with the application > > Bacula has Bat GUI, but I use bconsole and can find my way there, but > wonder how does Amanda compare here? Amanda does not have a GUI at all. Zmanda sells a GUI, but I have not used it. Amanda configuration is done with some scripts, thereafter with editing of configuration files. It is my experience that once you get the configuration files set up, everything is very stable. > > c) bare-metal recovery > > So far, I never did it with Bacula, but I confess that I'm not > probably ready either. > > Is bare-metal recovery easy/difficult with Amanda? Amanda does not address bare metal recovery. I, however, do. http://www.charlescurley.com/Linux-Complete-Backup-and-Recovery-HOWTO.html. Looking at the docs for Bacula 5.0.3 (30 August 2010), I suspect that the Bacula USB bare metal code might be easier to use than mine. > > > d) spanning volumes on more than one tape and appending to the tape > > I see two unusual (from the Bacula user's perspective) FAQ entries: > > 1) How do I back up a partition that won't fit on a tape? The quantum unit of backup in Amanda is the Disk List entry (DLE). A DLE may cover more than one partition or a portion of a partition. You can use exclusions to further refine and nest DLEs. > > 2) Why does Amanda not append to a tape? > > According to the FAQ, answer for 1) seems to be that it's possible > since 2.5.0, and it looks that 3.2.x is bringing support to even > better level. Correct? > > As far as issue 2) is concerned, I'm accustomed in Bacula to simply > run a job, selecting correct Pool of tapes and Bacula appends new > backup to the appropriate tape without much thinking. It looks that > Amanda is using different strategy, and the following confuses me > (from > http://wiki.zmanda.com/index.php/FAQ:Why_does_Amanda_not_append_to_a_tape%3F): > "...Amanda was designed to never overwrite a non-Amanda tape, nor an > Amanda tape from a different configuration, nor an Amanda tape from > the current configuration that is still "active", i.e. has backups on > the tape more recent than the dumpcycle length." > > Bacula also has 'file retention' parameter, but here I'm confused with > interchange of the words 'append' (as used in the FAQ entry) and > 'overwrite' as used in explanation? > > So I'd appreciate if someone can throw some more light on it helping > with the final decision. One thing that concerns me with appending is that if the tape or the tape drive goes bad during the append operation, you run the risk of clobbering no only the appended material but also the previous material. Having seen this happen, I prefer to avoid it. Tape space is much cheaper than your data. Also, with virtual tapes (vtapes in Amandaese), the question is meaningless. It is the total space available in the partition that is critical, not the "available space" on each vtape. > > > Anything else which I did not include which might be worth of > comparing? One of these days your tape drive is going to wear out. You may find it expedient to replace it with disk drives loaded with vtapes. Amanda has supported vtapes for years and the system works quite well. If I understand the Bacula docs, vtape support was new, experimental, and not for production use as of version 3.0. I don't see anything in the docs that indicates that has changed since. http://www.bacula.org/5.0.x-manuals/en/main/main/New_Features_in_3_0_0.html#SECTION008245000000000000000, http://www.bacula.org/en/dev-manual/main/main/Current_State_Bacula.html For me, the lack of vtapes in Bacula would be a show stopper. -- Charles Curley /"\ ASCII Ribbon Campaign Looking for fine software \ / Respect for open standards and/or writing? X No HTML/RTF in email http://www.charlescurley.com / \ No M$ Word docs in email Key fingerprint = CE5C 6645 A45A 64E4 94C0 809C FFF6 4C48 4ECD DFDB
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