Re: [gentoo-amd64] Re: initio seen, mt -f doesn't work

[Brett Johnson]

On Mon, Dec 19, 2005 at 10:23:56AM +0000, Gavin Seddon wrote:
> The Fedora is 2.4 kernel which I will migrate to today and if this
> doesn't solve my probs. I will swap my scsi controller.  If I remove my
> tape, what should I do with it?  (don't be rude)
>
> I have been obsessed with backups since the time when I lost 2/3 of a
> book and had to spend eternity recreating.  Any 'better' removable
> storage device suggestions are welcome.  Bearing in mind it needs to
> hold ~15Gb and a removable hd isn't feasible.
>  Gav.

I am not sure what you're saying about migrating and removing the tape.
If you mean you're going to install Fedora (2.4 kernel), then I would
assume your tape drive will work fine. It appears that your scsi card is
not fully supported in the 2.5/2.6 kernel.

If you're looking for alternate solutions to use with gentoo/2.6 kernel,
then I would suggest investing in a new scsi card. The tape drive and
cable should be fine (assuming proper maintenance of the tape drive).

I personally have moved away from tape for smaller data sets ( < 100GB
), as tape has some issues. First, you need to keep the tape head clean
and second tape media  has a limited useful life span. I have been
burned a couple times by defective tape media in a restore situation.

If an external hard drive is out, how about removeable hard drives?
Remeber, the point of a backup is just to keep the data in multiple
places. You can easily add a removeable drive cage to a system and
purchase a couple extra caddy's. This way you can alternate between 2
or 3 removable hard drives for backup devices. Some removeable trays
support key locks, in case you're worried about physical security.

The method I use is the dar program in conjunction with cdrecord-prodvd.
I create a full backup monthly, then create a weekly incremental against
the full backup, and then daily backups against the weekly. This method
only requires me to burn multiple dvd's once a month (as my monthly
backup is in excess of 20GB). After that, I get away with one extra dvd
per month (ymmv). For a recovery scenario, I may have to go through
multiple restores to bring the system current, but thats a trade off I
make to save on media.

Those are just a few ideas. There are many other ways to backup data. I
believe there is even an online service you can sign up for, and back up
to their servers. IIRC you pay by the backup size in 10GB increments. 

Backup solutions are unique to each enviroment and use.
Things to consider are; hard costs of backup hardware and media, time
required to perform backup and does data have to be taken offline, ease
and automation of backup, time required to restore data, ease and
automation of restore, and physical storage of backup media (it doesn't 
do you any good to keep all your backups in the same building as the data
if the building burns down). I am sure there are other factors too, this
is just to give you an idea of things to think about when trying to
come up with a new backup solution.

Brett
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