Backup and FreeBSD/ZFS

[Richard Mahlerwein]

----- Original Message ----

>From: Svein Skogen (Listmail Account) <svein-listmail at stillbilde.net>
>To: freebsd-questions at freebsd.org
>Sent: Thu, February 4, 2010 12:14:18 PM
>Subject: Re: Backup and FreeBSD/ZFS
>
>On 04.02.2010 17:57, Matthew Seaman wrote:
>> On 04/02/2010 15:35, Svein Skogen (Listmail Account) wrote:
>
>Alas, a full backup of the current disk setup takes 4 tapes and ... I
>really don't feel like staying up one entire night per week to swap
>tapes (both for the backup and the verify). The autoloader I've got now
>(8 slot, 1 drive, LTO-3, SAS) works fairly well with the currently
>installed OS (Windows Storage Server 2008), giving about 60MB/Sec
>sustained transfer rate.
>
>> LTO4 tapes are rated at 800--1600GB depending on achievable compression,
>> so they might be big enough on their own.  As image formats are already
>> internally compressed, I'd expect them to come in at the low end of
>> that, which might be tight.  Worth trying out if you can get a drive on
>> evaluation.
>
>A standalone LTO-4 might be a good alternative, if I didn't already have
>the tapeloader. ;)

Some (certainly not all) autoloaders can be upgraded/converted from LTO-3 to LTO-4 for about the same price as a standalone LTO-4.  

We use a windows based server for backups at work (nothing but a maintenance nightmare, let me tell you), and at home I have only a single-drive tape backup on my FreeBSD box (never a hiccup!) so I haven't been able to test the following, but would dump be able to understand the EOT and just be able to ask for a new one in the autoloader, which should be able to be set up to automatically move a new tape into the drive until it ran out?  

For what it's worth, I found Amanda unnecessarily complicated for my simple needs at home.  I tried Bacula as well and it seemed easier, but not enough to make it worth it.  I just dump the stuff I need to back up externally straight to tape on a weekly cron job.  They still fit on one tape.  :)