RE: Backing up MySQL (or Oracle ) tables

2003-04-02 Thread Keith Higgs
I have to agree. Dumping the database is the way.  In fact, although there are third 
party utilities that will allow you to backup a live Oracle database without stopping 
it, they cost a fortune, they are only licensed on an individual machine basis, and 
they do not have support for AMANDA.

I backup our 24*7*365 Oracle9i database by doing an export (the Oracle equiv. to 
MySQL's dump) and backing up the resulting .dmp file.  In the event a recovery is 
required I can then drop the schema contents and import the dump file to restore to 
the latest backup.

Yes, I am backing up a live Oracle instance with AMANDA via SAMBA.

Keith
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 Bort, Paul
> Sent: Wednesday, April 02, 2003 03:40 PM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: RE: Backing up MySQL tables
> 
> 
> Dumping the database and then backing up the dump is the 
> right way to go.
> Think of the dump as a snapshot of the database. By backing 
> up the snapshot,
> you know you're getting a consistent and restorable backup. If you're
> worried about the disk space it takes, you can compress it. 
> I've seen this
> method used for MySQL, PostgreSQL, MS SQL, and Oracle. 
> 
> > -Original Message-
> > From: Alex Thurlow [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > Sent: Wednesday, April 02, 2003 1:28 PM
> > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > Subject: Backing up MySQL tables
> > 
> > 
> > I need to start backing up MySQL tables on one of my 
> > machines, but I've 
> > heard that to you run the risk of table corruption if you 
> > just copy the 
> > mysql directory while MySQL is running.  Stopping the 
> > database is not an 
> > option, and the only solution I've come up with is having 
> > another script do 
> > a mysql dump and then backing up that.  It seems like a waste 
> > of time and 
> > resources to basically do 2 backups though.  I was just 
> > wondering what 
> > anyone here does for MySQL backups on their own systems?
> > 
> > Alex Thurlow
> > 
> 



Desired options. Was [RE: Frontend , UI for amanda ?]

2003-04-01 Thread Keith Higgs
I have to agree that a GUI frontend would be nice but completely unnecessary.  If you 
don't know your way around a command prompt you have little business being a backup 
administrator.

That said, there are lots of opportunities for additional configuration options.  Our 
single tape drive system is physically in a secure area that is staffed by our central 
IT department.  I have full access to the room but, we need to work out a 
process/procedure for their over-night operator to change out the tapes for us on a 
regular schedule.  

I would really like options to send tape administration reminders to a specified email 
address as part of the amcheck process.  I could then schedule amcheck to run long 
enough ahead the call to amdump for the operator to change the tape if needed.

Additionally, there could be an option for amdump to send such a message as needed for 
a tape swap during a backup run, or upon completion.

The use of this method within amcheck is by far the more preferrable because it 
provides more flexibility.  If you have multiple configurations scheduled to run at 
different times, it provides a means of checking the tape and requesting a change so 
you have fewer situations that require use of amflush.

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."



RE: tapes are doomed

2003-03-13 Thread D. Keith Higgs
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.
> >
> 
> 



RE: Pre-backup script ?

2003-03-07 Thread D. Keith Higgs


> -Original Message-
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Joshua 
> Baker-LePain
> Sent: Friday, March 07, 2003 08:57 AM
> To: joe mcguckin
> Cc: amanda-users list
> Subject: Re: Pre-backup script ?
> 
> The disadvantage is that you shut down stuff for the entirety of the 
> amdump run, not just while that client is being dumped.  But 
> it's a heck 
> of a lot easier...
> 

Of course, your scheduling this to run in the middle of your lowest use period anyway.

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."



RE: whitespaces in disk names

2003-02-27 Thread D. Keith Higgs
I would try a couple of other things.

* Replace " " with "%20" so you have "/usr1/home/document/Ingenierie%20SYNLOG"

* Double quote the name
* Single quote the name (some shells treat the different quotes differently)

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 Gilles Bourcy
> Sent: Thursday, February 27, 2003 05:17 AM
> To: amanda-users
> Subject: whitespaces in disk names
> 
> 
> Hello,
> 
> My problem is the following :
> I wish to save a directory in which there is a whitespace :
> /usr1/home/document/Ingenierie SYNLOG
> 
> So in the disklist file I tried different possibilities, 
> first by using 
> Linux usual means to deal with whitespaces
> in directory names :
> /usr1/home/document/Ingenierie\ SYNLOG
> "/usr1/home/document/Ingenierie SYNLOG"
> But when doing an amcheck, it rejects with an error saying 
> that SYNLOG 
> is a non defined dump-type
> (which is normal : it's part of the name of a directory, not 
> a dumptype).
> 
> So I tried using the different means offered by Amanda. :
> /usr1/home/document/Ingenierie?SYNLOG
> ^/usr1/home/document/Ingenierie?SYNLOG$
> /usr1/home/document/Ing*SYNLOG
> and so on...
> But when doing an amcheck, I've got an error saying the directories
> or files don't exist.
> 
> Has someone any idea ?
> 
> 



RE: running amlable from CRON

2003-02-10 Thread Keith Higgs
Why would anybody want to do this? If a tape containing vital
information is in the drive at the time amlabel will still label the
tape for use with AMANDA. Then, if you follow through and actually allow
AMANDA to write to that tape you will have lost that vital information.

I have an Oracle 9i database that I am backing up frequently.  I have
enough tapes for a two week cycle plus one pre-labeled and ready to go.
It really does NOT take that long to prepare this many tapes in a single
sitting.  Once they're labelled you can pretty much forget about them
aside from cycling new tapes into the pool as they age.

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 Mitch Collinsworth
> Sent: Friday, February 07, 2003 09:50 PM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: RE: speed problem
> 
> 
> 
> Hi David,
> 
> Sun hardware is really not my area of expertise, but I'm sure 
> there are
> others on amanda-users who can answer this.  If your Sun 
> boxes will only
> do 10 Mbps/half-duplex then just make sure your switch ports 
> are set to
> either auto/auto or 10/half and you'll be fine.
> 
> -Mitch
> 
> 
> On Fri, 7 Feb 2003 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> 
> > Mitch.
> > Here is the version of my Sun OS:
> > "SunOS gitpocs02 5.7 Generic_106541-08 sun4u sparc SUNW,Ultra-5_10"
> > The /dev/hme is "FEPS Ethernet Driver  v1.115"
> > The host seems too old to support 100/full-duplex.
> > Do you agree?
> >
> > Thanks!
> >
> > David
> >
> > -Original Message-
> > From: Mitch Collinsworth [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> > Sent: Thursday, February 06, 2003 7:18 PM
> > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > Subject: Re: speed problem
> >
> >
> >
> > On Thu, 6 Feb 2003 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> >
> > > My tape server is a Linux host (Redhat 7.3).
> > > My clients are either Linux hosts or Sun Solaris hosts.
> > > All client hosts are on the same domain.
> > > When I run 'amdump' to backup Linux hosts, the speed is 
> pretty good.
> > > When I run 'amdump' to backup Sun Solaris hosts, the 
> speed is extremely
> > > slow.
> > > It seems not a network or hardware issue.
> >
> > Seems?  You don't sound particularly sure on this point...  In my
> > experience one thing that is a frequent cause of deadly slow network
> > backups is a duplex mismatch between a backup client and 
> the ethernet
> > switch it connects to.  I've seen systems that the user had 
> been happily
> > using without complaint for weeks or months before asking 
> for backups.
> > When their backup went painfully slow I'd check their 
> network settings
> > and invariably find a duplex mismatch.
> >
> > Another cause of slowness can be doing client compression, 
> especially
> > "client best" on slow hardware.  How old/slow are your 
> Solaris boxen?
> >
> > -Mitch
> >
> 




RE: columm widths in daily mail report

2003-01-30 Thread Keith Higgs
I have to agree.  While the package names escape me at the moment there
are already lots of toys for converting text files to other formats,
including HTML.

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 Darin Dugan
> Sent: Thursday, January 30, 2003 03:16 PM
> To: Joshua Baker-LePain; Mitch Collinsworth
> Cc: Don Carlton; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; 
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: Re: columm widths in daily mail report
> 
> 
> But I'm not certain that this needs to be a part of Amanda either. 
Anyone could write up a quick perl script to take amreport -f and
html-ize it. 
Stick that in your backup script and be done.




RE:Oracle backup via AMANDA

2003-01-27 Thread Keith Higgs
I run a cron script that runs the Oracle export utility and tar/gzips
the dmp and log files using a date named file.  You can then use AMANDA
to backup the output.

The alternative is to purchase a third party interface for each Oracle
installation you wish to backup.  Unfortunately, such warez tend to be
expen$ive.

The stumbling points you will run into with exp are as follows:
* You should use a parameter file that includes the
userid=user/pwd@connect_string and the owner=schema_to_backup
properties.  If you feel your userid MUST be 'sys/[pwd] AS SYSDBA' you
MUST remember to quote the string.  Otherwise, exp gives errors on the
undefined use of keyword 'AS', and on the attempt to use multiple
userids.

* Your crontab file MUST include definitions of ORACLE_HOME and
ORACLE_BASE environment variables, and probably needs a definition of
PATH as well.  Without the two Oracle envars the cron session has no
idea where to look for the Oracle environment.

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."