continuous backup solution for FreeBSD

[yurtesen at ispro.net]

Quoting "Zaphod Beeblebrox" <zbeeble at gmail.com>:

> On Wed, Oct 8, 2008 at 2:01 PM, Evren Yurtesen <yurtesen at ispro.net> wrote:
>
>> Zaphod Beeblebrox wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> Wow... thanks for the flame, but there's no reason that the  device that
>>> is receiving the hammer replication couldn't be on the other side of the
>>> globe and there's no reason it couldn't be considered a backup.    
>>> Part of the
>>> advantage of the structure that allows you to efficiently select for new
>>> changes allows you to do the same kind of *backup* as they claim.
>>>
>>>
>> Wouldnt that device need to keep the whole filesystem? Like if you have 10
>> machines with 10x 1GB drives (lets say each used about 250gb), you will need
>> 10TB disk space in the backup server?
>>
>
>
> Urm... I think everything we've been discussing here backs up the whole
> filesystem (it would be near impossible for a block-oriented system to do
> elsewise).  I suppose you could do something with the archive bit or dump
> bits with a filesystem based backup.
>
> But anyways... in a filesystem based replication system, you'd need enough
> space to store the data and the history of the data.  The sum of the history
> of the data could even exceed the size of the sum of the input disks.  It
> could also be much smaller.  It really depends on how much you change.
>

The CDP backup solutions can manage that, even better you dont have to  
change to a totally new filesystem to use them.

I really do not want to have a large argument about this but the only  
reason we cant do this on FreeBSD is because the companies who write  
CDP type backup solutions either do not know much about FreeBSD or  
they just cant find anybody who they can hire to do the job on FreeBSD.

So that is why I posted this information to this list. If there is  
anybody who is capable of porting such software to FreeBSD then they  
can, 1- probably make money by doing the job, 2- if they have very  
little free time and not interested in making money then they can  
perhaps contact some of these companies (for example r1soft seems to  
be interested in supporting FreeBSD) and give them some hints and  
ideas on how this can be done on FreeBSD and where to find example  
codes and more information etc.

Thanks,
Evren