[gentoo-user] Random-access cross-platform FS_backup tool suggestions

[Mike Kazantsev]

Hello,

It seems that tar/gzip/bzip2 are almost universal solutions for
unix-like system backups and we're using tar/gz combo to create backups
from the dawn of times.
But as the time goes by I stumble upon two misfits of such a combination
more and more:

  1. It's quite inpractical to keep tens of tarballs for one backup.
  2. Seeking within single tens-hundreds-of-gigs tarball is suboptimal,
    at least.
  3. Single thread operation.

At home, being a gentoo-only user (w/ gentoo-patched kernels), I've
solved the problem with squashfs - it keeps all the necessary
attributes, hardlinks, boasts multi-threaded creation and instant
access to any file within.

Alas, I can't use it on a production servers due to compatibility
issues - not a single linux here have support for it and changing
/ patching kernels is a bit of nuisance. Even worse, many systems that
need to be backed-up are FreeBSD.

So I thought there's gotta be something that fits these criterias, but
so far I've found only "dar" and it seems quite slow and a bit unsuited
for these needs.

Any suggestions?
Thanks.

-- 
Mike Kazantsev // fraggod.net