From christinemp217 at gmail.com  Tue Feb  2 03:21:53 2021
From: christinemp217 at gmail.com (christine)
Date: Mon, 1 Feb 2021 22:21:53 -0500
Subject: [Techtalk] Linode is Hiring!
Message-ID: <CANSebqPkxfkxjBa0tJKvSM8_pOpwCPXuEEDp8RkrTL2VAvP2Fw@mail.gmail.com>

Hello all,

My department are hiring for SysAdmin and Systems Engineering roles! I
would love to have some more diversity on my team. If you have any
questions, please let me know. And do let me know if you apply, I can be a
reference!
https://www.linode.com/company/careers/jobs/

All my best,
Christine

From c.daly at met.ie  Tue Feb  2 10:18:49 2021
From: c.daly at met.ie (Conor Daly)
Date: Tue, 2 Feb 2021 10:18:49 +0000
Subject: [Techtalk] seeking backup solution recommendations
In-Reply-To: <001201d6c5af$33860c60$9a922520$@alwanza.com>
References: <001201d6c5af$33860c60$9a922520$@alwanza.com>
Message-ID: <20210202101849.GY11066@bofh.irmet.ie>

Hi Meryll,

I know it's a while ago now but I'm wondering did you get a solution?

I have used unix Dump/Restore as a backup solution for production servers
for many years.  The advantage of dump over tar is that it does things like
start a catalog at the beginning of the dump so you don't have to read the
whole tape to see what's on it.  It's also cross-server retrievable and it
can do tape changes.

I think it covers all your bases...

Comments inline below

Regards,

Conor


On Sat, Nov 28, 2020 at 09:52:11AM -0800 or thereabouts, Meryll Larkin wrote:
> Hi Systers,
> 
>  
> 
> I'm searching online too, but I thought emailing this list might help me as
> some of you probably have experience with different backup solutions.
> 
>  
> 
> The environment that I am backing up has the following features:
> 
> 1.      Only Linux servers in the LAN- no other OS.

Yep, same here.
 
> 2.      Only ONE DIRECTORY really requires backup.  That directory is 140 T
> in size, but currently contains 25 T of data.  That could double over the
> next 4 years, not sooner.

Sounds like lots of tapes.  Does that have a decent sub-directory structure?
Does it have an 'archive' area that does not change as well as an 'active'
area where changes occur?  This can affect how you backup.  You could use a
backup plan like:

  1st of month:  Full backup of 'archive' area.  Might take a day or
                 more to complete depending on drive speed. 

  Friday:        Full backup of 'active' area.  This starts when everybody
                 is gone for the weekend.  Not too long as only 'active' are
                 is backed up.

  Mon - Thu:     Level 1 (incremental) backup of 'active' area.  This is
		 pretty quick as it only backs up changes since last full
                 backup.
 
> 3.      Some of the files in that one directory are 20G in size, and they
> could get larger.

Is it the case that a file will be actively growing and can you schedule
backups for when this is not happening?
 
> 4.      We have a tape drive - which we have been using to make backups
> using "tar".  That has reached its useful limit with those large files.
> The tapes hold about 12T of uncompressed data, each.  We have several tapes.
> We have never gotten the "Autoloader" feature to work on the tape drive, but
> we can move the tapes manually, remotely.  I'm smart about selecting pieces
> to backup that fit on each tape.

dump has a '-F <script>' switch which specifies a script to run when a tape
fills.  Because it's just a path to a script, you control what it does.  In
my case, the 'swaptape.sh' script does the work on the autoloader using the
'mtx' command.  

I developed a fairly simple (I hope!) configuration to manage tapes and
filesystems.  It looks something like this:

###########################################################
Slot    Filesystem(s)
1-3     srv3:/ srv3:/boot srv3:/home srv3:/d8 srv2:/archive
4       / /boot /home /usr /var /db_ckpt
# comment
###########################################################

Slot 1-3 indicates the backup should start on the tape in slot 1 and should
use the tape in slot 2 when tape 1 fills, moving on to slot 3 when tape 2
fills.  
Slot 4 indicates the backup should use only the tape in slot 4 and will fail
if this tape fills.

srv3:/home says backup filesystem /home on remote server 'srv3'

/db_ckpt says backup the database checkpoint filesystem '/db_ckpt' on the
local machine.

Log output from the backup looks like:

Starting MASTER backups
Target: bkpsrv:/dev/nst0
Filesystem      | Level | Slot  | Barcode       | Start date       | Status | Finish date      | Barcode
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
srv3:/          |   1   |   2   | 000059L5      | 2021-02-01 17:06 | Success | 2021-02-01 17:08 | 000059L5
srv3:/boot      |   1   |   2   | 000059L5      | 2021-02-01 17:08 | Success | 2021-02-01 17:08 | 000059L5
srv3:/home      |   1   |   2   | 000059L5      | 2021-02-01 17:08 | Success | 2021-02-01 17:46 | 000059L5
srv3:/d8        |   1   |   2   | 000059L5      | 2021-02-01 17:46 | Success | 2021-02-01 18:45 | 000059L5
srv2:/archive   |   1   |   2   | 000059L5      | 2021-02-01 19:05 | Success | 2021-02-01 19:05 | 000059L5
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Filesystem      | Level | Slot  | Barcode       | Start date       | Status | Finish date      | Barcode
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/               |   1   |   3   | 000060L5      | 2021-02-01 19:11 | Success | 2021-02-01 19:11 | 000060L5
/boot           |   1   |   3   | 000060L5      | 2021-02-01 19:11 | Success | 2021-02-01 19:11 | 000060L5
/home           |   1   |   3   | 000060L5      | 2021-02-01 19:11 | Success | 2021-02-01 19:11 | 000060L5
/usr            |   1   |   3   | 000060L5      | 2021-02-01 19:11 | Success | 2021-02-01 19:12 | 000060L5
/var            |   1   |   3   | 000060L5      | 2021-02-01 19:12 | Success | 2021-02-01 19:12 | 000060L5
/db_ckpt        |   1   |   3   | 000060L5      | 2021-02-01 19:12 | Success | 2021-02-01 19:15 | 000060L5
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

and the detailed dump output goes to a second logfile to be studied in the
case of error.

Our tape library has a barcode reader so these are logged also.  The tape
change shows up as something like:

srv2:/archive   |   0   |   1   | 000050L5      | 2021-01-27 21:29 | Success | 2021-01-28 07:49 | 000059L5

where the second barcode differs from the first.

It all depends on basic unix tape tools which you will have installed to
manage your tape library:

  mt:         Interact with the tape in the drive
  mtx:        Interact with the tape library
  dump:       Backup ext2/3/4 filesystems
  restore:    Restore ext2/3/4 filesystems
  xfsdump:    Backup xfs filesystems
  xfsrestore: Restore xfs filesystems

I did have an issue with xfsdump on large filesystems where the backup would
fail to resume on tape change which seemed to be down to a hardware
mismatch.  I think it was eventually resolved.
 
> 5.      We have an internal DNS server for the LAN only, I mention this
> because I remember a decade ago some backup solutions needed to use server
> names and have reverse lookup.  We can do that.

I don't think dump requires this, it can likely do ip addresses.
 
> 6.      We don't currently have email going in or out of the LAN.  The email
> sits in /var/spool/mail.  So what that means is that if there is a GUI
> dashboard, the GUI will need to display errors.  It would be helpful to be
> able to see errors some way OTHER than email notifications.  Okay if I need
> to use command line to pull them.

My solution would output to log files.  Chunks of these would get emailed
but I had an active log review schedule every morning.
 
> 7.      This is ALSO our backup and recovery plan so it is IMPORTANT that
> Restores can be done from storage media EVEN IF the original server that
> created the backup is destroyed.  In other words, I need to be able to make
> a new server, install the backup software, and restore to new hardware.  

Yep, dump/restore does this.  Only caveat is matching versions of
dump/restore.  I cannot remember but I suspect a later restore can read
older dumps.
 
> I'm mentioning this because I think SOME encryption algorithms prevent the
> ability to restore from non-original backup software install.
> 
>         I manually retrieve tapes with backups on them so they can be stored
> off-site.
> 
> 8.      Nice to have:  Speed at backing up - because folks using the
> resources don't like to have their processes slowed nor access denied for
> very long.

See my 'archive' vs 'active' suggestion above.  
 
> 9.      Nice to have: Granular Restores

'restore -i' gives you a (very traditional unix) interactive session with a
tape where you can select individual files for restore. 
 
>  
> 
> Suggestions?  Ideas?
> 
> I'd like to hear about BOTH solutions that FIT my criteria AND if you know
> solutions that DON'T (so I don't waste my time in my online research).
> 
>  
> 
> TIA,
> 
> Meryll Larkin
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Techtalk mailing list
> Techtalk at linuxchix.org
> https://mailman.linuxchix.org/mailman/listinfo/techtalk

-- 
Conor Daly (Meteorologist),                   
Met Eireann, Glasnevin Hill,  
Dublin 9, Ireland             
Ph +3531 8064261

*********************************************************************************

This e-mail and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the addressee. If you have received this email in error please notify the sender.
 
This e-mail message has also been scanned for the presence of computer viruses.


Ta an riomhphost seo, agus aon chomhad ata nasctha leis, faoi run agus is don te a seoladh chuige amhain e. Ma tharla go bhfuair tu an riomhphost seo tri dhearmad cuir in iul don te a sheol e led' thoil.

Ta an teachtaireacht riomhphoist seo scuabtha le bogearrai frithvireas.
 
********************************************************************************



From mll at alwanza.com  Mon Feb  8 19:06:46 2021
From: mll at alwanza.com (Meryll Larkin)
Date: Mon, 8 Feb 2021 11:06:46 -0800
Subject: [Techtalk] seeking backup solution recommendations
In-Reply-To: <20210202101849.GY11066@bofh.irmet.ie>
References: <001201d6c5af$33860c60$9a922520$@alwanza.com>
 <20210202101849.GY11066@bofh.irmet.ie>
Message-ID: <004e01d6fe4d$8e1424b0$aa3c6e10$@alwanza.com>

Hi Conor,

Thank you for responding and for all that information!

Since my partition is formatted in the xfs file system, I should try the
xfsdump solution.

It appears to me (from my reading of the man pages, but my understanding may
be faulty) that "dump" (or xfsdump) will not permit me to select directories
or subdirectories for backup, but rather backs up an entire partition.  If
that is the case, it may be less useful to me than "tar", but still worth a
try.
Thank you for your script suggestions.  If I get to try it, I'll write back
and let you know how it worked for me.

No one else has responded, and, you can probably guess since I am still
using "tar", I haven't found anything better yet.

Meryll Larkin


-----Original Message-----
From: Conor Daly [mailto:c.daly at met.ie] 
Sent: Tuesday, February 2, 2021 2:19 AM
To: Meryll Larkin
Cc: techtalk at linuxchix.org
Subject: Re: [Techtalk] seeking backup solution recommendations

Hi Meryll,

I know it's a while ago now but I'm wondering did you get a solution?

I have used unix Dump/Restore as a backup solution for production servers
for many years.  The advantage of dump over tar is that it does things like
start a catalog at the beginning of the dump so you don't have to read the
whole tape to see what's on it.  It's also cross-server retrievable and it
can do tape changes.

I think it covers all your bases...

Comments inline below

Regards,

Conor


On Sat, Nov 28, 2020 at 09:52:11AM -0800 or thereabouts, Meryll Larkin
wrote:
> Hi Systers,
> 
>  
> 
> I'm searching online too, but I thought emailing this list might help me
as
> some of you probably have experience with different backup solutions.
> 
>  
> 
> The environment that I am backing up has the following features:
> 
> 1.      Only Linux servers in the LAN- no other OS.

Yep, same here.
 
> 2.      Only ONE DIRECTORY really requires backup.  That directory is 140
T
> in size, but currently contains 25 T of data.  That could double over the
> next 4 years, not sooner.

Sounds like lots of tapes.  Does that have a decent sub-directory structure?
Does it have an 'archive' area that does not change as well as an 'active'
area where changes occur?  This can affect how you backup.  You could use a
backup plan like:

  1st of month:  Full backup of 'archive' area.  Might take a day or
                 more to complete depending on drive speed. 

  Friday:        Full backup of 'active' area.  This starts when everybody
                 is gone for the weekend.  Not too long as only 'active' are
                 is backed up.

  Mon - Thu:     Level 1 (incremental) backup of 'active' area.  This is
		 pretty quick as it only backs up changes since last full
                 backup.
 
> 3.      Some of the files in that one directory are 20G in size, and they
> could get larger.

Is it the case that a file will be actively growing and can you schedule
backups for when this is not happening?
 
> 4.      We have a tape drive - which we have been using to make backups
> using "tar".  That has reached its useful limit with those large files.
> The tapes hold about 12T of uncompressed data, each.  We have several
tapes.
> We have never gotten the "Autoloader" feature to work on the tape drive,
but
> we can move the tapes manually, remotely.  I'm smart about selecting
pieces
> to backup that fit on each tape.

dump has a '-F <script>' switch which specifies a script to run when a tape
fills.  Because it's just a path to a script, you control what it does.  In
my case, the 'swaptape.sh' script does the work on the autoloader using the
'mtx' command.  

I developed a fairly simple (I hope!) configuration to manage tapes and
filesystems.  It looks something like this:

###########################################################
Slot    Filesystem(s)
1-3     srv3:/ srv3:/boot srv3:/home srv3:/d8 srv2:/archive
4       / /boot /home /usr /var /db_ckpt
# comment
###########################################################

Slot 1-3 indicates the backup should start on the tape in slot 1 and should
use the tape in slot 2 when tape 1 fills, moving on to slot 3 when tape 2
fills.  
Slot 4 indicates the backup should use only the tape in slot 4 and will fail
if this tape fills.

srv3:/home says backup filesystem /home on remote server 'srv3'

/db_ckpt says backup the database checkpoint filesystem '/db_ckpt' on the
local machine.

Log output from the backup looks like:

Starting MASTER backups
Target: bkpsrv:/dev/nst0
Filesystem      | Level | Slot  | Barcode       | Start date       | Status
| Finish date      | Barcode
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------
srv3:/          |   1   |   2   | 000059L5      | 2021-02-01 17:06 | Success
| 2021-02-01 17:08 | 000059L5
srv3:/boot      |   1   |   2   | 000059L5      | 2021-02-01 17:08 | Success
| 2021-02-01 17:08 | 000059L5
srv3:/home      |   1   |   2   | 000059L5      | 2021-02-01 17:08 | Success
| 2021-02-01 17:46 | 000059L5
srv3:/d8        |   1   |   2   | 000059L5      | 2021-02-01 17:46 | Success
| 2021-02-01 18:45 | 000059L5
srv2:/archive   |   1   |   2   | 000059L5      | 2021-02-01 19:05 | Success
| 2021-02-01 19:05 | 000059L5
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------
Filesystem      | Level | Slot  | Barcode       | Start date       | Status
| Finish date      | Barcode
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------
/               |   1   |   3   | 000060L5      | 2021-02-01 19:11 | Success
| 2021-02-01 19:11 | 000060L5
/boot           |   1   |   3   | 000060L5      | 2021-02-01 19:11 | Success
| 2021-02-01 19:11 | 000060L5
/home           |   1   |   3   | 000060L5      | 2021-02-01 19:11 | Success
| 2021-02-01 19:11 | 000060L5
/usr            |   1   |   3   | 000060L5      | 2021-02-01 19:11 | Success
| 2021-02-01 19:12 | 000060L5
/var            |   1   |   3   | 000060L5      | 2021-02-01 19:12 | Success
| 2021-02-01 19:12 | 000060L5
/db_ckpt        |   1   |   3   | 000060L5      | 2021-02-01 19:12 | Success
| 2021-02-01 19:15 | 000060L5
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------

and the detailed dump output goes to a second logfile to be studied in the
case of error.

Our tape library has a barcode reader so these are logged also.  The tape
change shows up as something like:

srv2:/archive   |   0   |   1   | 000050L5      | 2021-01-27 21:29 | Success
| 2021-01-28 07:49 | 000059L5

where the second barcode differs from the first.

It all depends on basic unix tape tools which you will have installed to
manage your tape library:

  mt:         Interact with the tape in the drive
  mtx:        Interact with the tape library
  dump:       Backup ext2/3/4 filesystems
  restore:    Restore ext2/3/4 filesystems
  xfsdump:    Backup xfs filesystems
  xfsrestore: Restore xfs filesystems

I did have an issue with xfsdump on large filesystems where the backup would
fail to resume on tape change which seemed to be down to a hardware
mismatch.  I think it was eventually resolved.
 
> 5.      We have an internal DNS server for the LAN only, I mention this
> because I remember a decade ago some backup solutions needed to use server
> names and have reverse lookup.  We can do that.

I don't think dump requires this, it can likely do ip addresses.
 
> 6.      We don't currently have email going in or out of the LAN.  The
email
> sits in /var/spool/mail.  So what that means is that if there is a GUI
> dashboard, the GUI will need to display errors.  It would be helpful to be
> able to see errors some way OTHER than email notifications.  Okay if I
need
> to use command line to pull them.

My solution would output to log files.  Chunks of these would get emailed
but I had an active log review schedule every morning.
 
> 7.      This is ALSO our backup and recovery plan so it is IMPORTANT that
> Restores can be done from storage media EVEN IF the original server that
> created the backup is destroyed.  In other words, I need to be able to
make
> a new server, install the backup software, and restore to new hardware.  

Yep, dump/restore does this.  Only caveat is matching versions of
dump/restore.  I cannot remember but I suspect a later restore can read
older dumps.
 
> I'm mentioning this because I think SOME encryption algorithms prevent the
> ability to restore from non-original backup software install.
> 
>         I manually retrieve tapes with backups on them so they can be
stored
> off-site.
> 
> 8.      Nice to have:  Speed at backing up - because folks using the
> resources don't like to have their processes slowed nor access denied for
> very long.

See my 'archive' vs 'active' suggestion above.  
 
> 9.      Nice to have: Granular Restores

'restore -i' gives you a (very traditional unix) interactive session with a
tape where you can select individual files for restore. 
 
>  
> 
> Suggestions?  Ideas?
> 
> I'd like to hear about BOTH solutions that FIT my criteria AND if you know
> solutions that DON'T (so I don't waste my time in my online research).
> 
>  
> 
> TIA,
> 
> Meryll Larkin
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Techtalk mailing list
> Techtalk at linuxchix.org
> https://mailman.linuxchix.org/mailman/listinfo/techtalk

-- 
Conor Daly (Meteorologist),                   
Met Eireann, Glasnevin Hill,  
Dublin 9, Ireland             
Ph +3531 8064261

****************************************************************************
*****

This e-mail and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended
solely for the addressee. If you have received this email in error please
notify the sender.
 
This e-mail message has also been scanned for the presence of computer
viruses.


Ta an riomhphost seo, agus aon chomhad ata nasctha leis, faoi run agus is
don te a seoladh chuige amhain e. Ma tharla go bhfuair tu an riomhphost seo
tri dhearmad cuir in iul don te a sheol e led' thoil.

Ta an teachtaireacht riomhphoist seo scuabtha le bogearrai frithvireas.
 
****************************************************************************
****


_______________________________________________
Techtalk mailing list
Techtalk at linuxchix.org
https://mailman.linuxchix.org/mailman/listinfo/techtalk



From littlergirl at gmail.com  Mon Feb  8 22:03:21 2021
From: littlergirl at gmail.com (Little Girl)
Date: Mon, 8 Feb 2021 17:03:21 -0500
Subject: [Techtalk] seeking backup solution recommendations
In-Reply-To: <004e01d6fe4d$8e1424b0$aa3c6e10$@alwanza.com>
References: <001201d6c5af$33860c60$9a922520$@alwanza.com>
 <20210202101849.GY11066@bofh.irmet.ie>
 <004e01d6fe4d$8e1424b0$aa3c6e10$@alwanza.com>
Message-ID: <6021b558.1c69fb81.91a0a.5d9d@mx.google.com>

Hey there,

Meryll Larkin wrote:

>No one else has responded,

I'm going to have to decide whether to use my powers of invisibility
for good or evil, for they are strong. I guess it's a good thing that
good looks more appealing. Anyway, good luck to you and I hope you
find a solution that you're happy with.

-- 
Little Girl

There is no spoon.


From mll at alwanza.com  Tue Feb  9 04:55:37 2021
From: mll at alwanza.com (Meryll Larkin)
Date: Mon, 8 Feb 2021 20:55:37 -0800
Subject: [Techtalk] seeking backup solution recommendations
In-Reply-To: <6021b558.1c69fb81.91a0a.5d9d@mx.google.com>
References: <001201d6c5af$33860c60$9a922520$@alwanza.com>
 <20210202101849.GY11066@bofh.irmet.ie>
 <004e01d6fe4d$8e1424b0$aa3c6e10$@alwanza.com>
 <6021b558.1c69fb81.91a0a.5d9d@mx.google.com>
Message-ID: <000301d6fe9f$d0141300$703c3900$@alwanza.com>

Hi Little Girl,

Whoops!  You are correct.  I did receive a response from you!  You wrote
about GRsync and I forgot about it because you mentioned "dry run button".

I'm working with the Linux command line and I SHOULD have asked - what
happens with GRSync if I don't have access to "GUI"?

Yes, I know  how to do ssh X forwarding, the problem is that the connection
is so slow... screen redraw takes forever and it always feels like it is
about to freeze or drop.    If there is a command line menu or command line
options, that would be better for me.   I guess I can research that, too.

I have used (regular) rsync for backups for years, and it is the solution I
use in my own home - I created an rsync script that runs weekly with cron.

My experience with (regular) rsync and the tapes that I am using is that tar
with the right BlockSize and blocking-factor tends to be faster.
Faster is important when the issue is input to a single tape of a repository
with 25T of data.

Still good to hear of another option though.  Someone will probably benefit
from your information.

Thank you,
Meryll Larkin


-----Original Message-----
From: Little Girl [mailto:littlergirl at gmail.com] 
Sent: Monday, February 8, 2021 2:03 PM
To: techtalk at linuxchix.org
Subject: Re: [Techtalk] seeking backup solution recommendations

Hey there,

Meryll Larkin wrote:

>No one else has responded,

I'm going to have to decide whether to use my powers of invisibility
for good or evil, for they are strong. I guess it's a good thing that
good looks more appealing. Anyway, good luck to you and I hope you
find a solution that you're happy with.

-- 
Little Girl

There is no spoon.

_______________________________________________
Techtalk mailing list
Techtalk at linuxchix.org
https://mailman.linuxchix.org/mailman/listinfo/techtalk



From c.daly at met.ie  Wed Feb 10 09:17:29 2021
From: c.daly at met.ie (Conor Daly)
Date: Wed, 10 Feb 2021 09:17:29 +0000
Subject: [Techtalk] seeking backup solution recommendations
In-Reply-To: <004e01d6fe4d$8e1424b0$aa3c6e10$@alwanza.com>
References: <001201d6c5af$33860c60$9a922520$@alwanza.com>
 <20210202101849.GY11066@bofh.irmet.ie>
 <004e01d6fe4d$8e1424b0$aa3c6e10$@alwanza.com>
Message-ID: <20210210091728.GA7757@bofh.irmet.ie>

Hi Meryll,

For some reason, my mails don't seem to end up in the list.

Anyway, it appears that xfsdump can use a '-s pathname' option to backup
subdirectories.

It also has a '-c program' option to alert the operator for media changes.
I seem to recall though that this script didn't work in the same way as the
dump version.  When using dump, the alert script returns 0 for success and
the dump resumes.  With xfsdump, I think the program runs the alert script
and then exits so it is necessary to restart xfsdump with the '-R' "Resume"
switch.

My xfsdump function looks like the below and doesn't include the '-c
program' option.  I think I tried to have it run the swaptape.sh script but
the exit code was not available or some such so the function couldn't
respond afterwards. It's also limited in that it will do only one tape
change but it wouldn't be too hard to modify that to a while loop.

################## dump_xfs_fs function ###################
dump_xfs_fs() {
  SESSIONLABEL="System backup"
  MEDIALABEL="VolumeTag=$TAPEBARCODE"
  #VERBOSE="-v nitty"
  echo "running: xfsdump $VERBOSE $XFSBLOCKSIZE -l $LEVEL -p 300 -L \"$SESSIONLABEL\" -M "$MEDIALABEL" $OVERWRITE -F -f ${TDEV} $FS"
  xfsdump $VERBOSE -l $LEVEL -p 300 -L "$SESSIONLABEL" -M "$MEDIALABEL" $OVERWRITE -F -f ${TDEV} $FS
  XFSSTATUS=$?
  echo "XFSStatus: $XFSSTATUS"
  while [ $XFSSTATUS -eq 2 ]; do
    echo "About to run ${BINDIR}/swaptape.sh"
    ${BINDIR}/swaptape.sh
    XFSSTATUS=$?
    echo "swaptape status: $XFSSTATUS"
    TAPEBARCODE=$(getloadedtape)
    MEDIALABEL="VolumeTag=$TAPEBARCODE"
    if [ $XFSSTATUS -eq 0 ]; then
      # if we have just changed tape in a level 0 dump, we need to overwrite
      # the tape.
      if [ $LEVEL -eq 0 ]; then
        OVERWRITE=-E
      else
        OVERWRITE=""
      fi
      echo "running: xfsdump -l $LEVEL -p 300 -L "$SESSIONLABEL" -M "$MEDIALABEL" -R $OVERWRITE -F -f ${TDEV} $FS"
      xfsdump $VERBOSE $XFSBLOCKSIZE -l $LEVEL -p 300 -L "$SESSIONLABEL" -M "$MEDIALABEL" -R $OVERWRITE -F -f ${TDEV} $FS
      XFSSTATUS=$?
    fi
  done
  return $XFSSTATUS
}
###########################################################

Regards,

Conor

On Mon, Feb 08, 2021 at 11:06:46AM -0800 or thereabouts, Meryll Larkin wrote:
> Hi Conor,
> 
> Thank you for responding and for all that information!
> 
> Since my partition is formatted in the xfs file system, I should try the
> xfsdump solution.
> 
> It appears to me (from my reading of the man pages, but my understanding may
> be faulty) that "dump" (or xfsdump) will not permit me to select directories
> or subdirectories for backup, but rather backs up an entire partition.  If
> that is the case, it may be less useful to me than "tar", but still worth a
> try.
> Thank you for your script suggestions.  If I get to try it, I'll write back
> and let you know how it worked for me.
> 
> No one else has responded, and, you can probably guess since I am still
> using "tar", I haven't found anything better yet.
> 
> Meryll Larkin
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Conor Daly [mailto:c.daly at met.ie] 
> Sent: Tuesday, February 2, 2021 2:19 AM
> To: Meryll Larkin
> Cc: techtalk at linuxchix.org
> Subject: Re: [Techtalk] seeking backup solution recommendations
> 
> Hi Meryll,
> 
> I know it's a while ago now but I'm wondering did you get a solution?
> 
> I have used unix Dump/Restore as a backup solution for production servers
> for many years.  The advantage of dump over tar is that it does things like
> start a catalog at the beginning of the dump so you don't have to read the
> whole tape to see what's on it.  It's also cross-server retrievable and it
> can do tape changes.
> 
> I think it covers all your bases...
> 
> Comments inline below
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Conor
> 
> 
> On Sat, Nov 28, 2020 at 09:52:11AM -0800 or thereabouts, Meryll Larkin
> wrote:
> > Hi Systers,
> > 
> >  
> > 
> > I'm searching online too, but I thought emailing this list might help me
> as
> > some of you probably have experience with different backup solutions.
> > 
> >  
> > 
> > The environment that I am backing up has the following features:
> > 
> > 1.      Only Linux servers in the LAN- no other OS.
> 
> Yep, same here.
>  
> > 2.      Only ONE DIRECTORY really requires backup.  That directory is 140
> T
> > in size, but currently contains 25 T of data.  That could double over the
> > next 4 years, not sooner.
> 
> Sounds like lots of tapes.  Does that have a decent sub-directory structure?
> Does it have an 'archive' area that does not change as well as an 'active'
> area where changes occur?  This can affect how you backup.  You could use a
> backup plan like:
> 
>   1st of month:  Full backup of 'archive' area.  Might take a day or
>                  more to complete depending on drive speed. 
> 
>   Friday:        Full backup of 'active' area.  This starts when everybody
>                  is gone for the weekend.  Not too long as only 'active' are
>                  is backed up.
> 
>   Mon - Thu:     Level 1 (incremental) backup of 'active' area.  This is
> 		 pretty quick as it only backs up changes since last full
>                  backup.
>  
> > 3.      Some of the files in that one directory are 20G in size, and they
> > could get larger.
> 
> Is it the case that a file will be actively growing and can you schedule
> backups for when this is not happening?
>  
> > 4.      We have a tape drive - which we have been using to make backups
> > using "tar".  That has reached its useful limit with those large files.
> > The tapes hold about 12T of uncompressed data, each.  We have several
> tapes.
> > We have never gotten the "Autoloader" feature to work on the tape drive,
> but
> > we can move the tapes manually, remotely.  I'm smart about selecting
> pieces
> > to backup that fit on each tape.
> 
> dump has a '-F <script>' switch which specifies a script to run when a tape
> fills.  Because it's just a path to a script, you control what it does.  In
> my case, the 'swaptape.sh' script does the work on the autoloader using the
> 'mtx' command.  
> 
> I developed a fairly simple (I hope!) configuration to manage tapes and
> filesystems.  It looks something like this:
> 
> ###########################################################
> Slot    Filesystem(s)
> 1-3     srv3:/ srv3:/boot srv3:/home srv3:/d8 srv2:/archive
> 4       / /boot /home /usr /var /db_ckpt
> # comment
> ###########################################################
> 
> Slot 1-3 indicates the backup should start on the tape in slot 1 and should
> use the tape in slot 2 when tape 1 fills, moving on to slot 3 when tape 2
> fills.  
> Slot 4 indicates the backup should use only the tape in slot 4 and will fail
> if this tape fills.
> 
> srv3:/home says backup filesystem /home on remote server 'srv3'
> 
> /db_ckpt says backup the database checkpoint filesystem '/db_ckpt' on the
> local machine.
> 
> Log output from the backup looks like:
> 
> Starting MASTER backups
> Target: bkpsrv:/dev/nst0
> Filesystem      | Level | Slot  | Barcode       | Start date       | Status
> | Finish date      | Barcode
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> -------------------------------
> srv3:/          |   1   |   2   | 000059L5      | 2021-02-01 17:06 | Success
> | 2021-02-01 17:08 | 000059L5
> srv3:/boot      |   1   |   2   | 000059L5      | 2021-02-01 17:08 | Success
> | 2021-02-01 17:08 | 000059L5
> srv3:/home      |   1   |   2   | 000059L5      | 2021-02-01 17:08 | Success
> | 2021-02-01 17:46 | 000059L5
> srv3:/d8        |   1   |   2   | 000059L5      | 2021-02-01 17:46 | Success
> | 2021-02-01 18:45 | 000059L5
> srv2:/archive   |   1   |   2   | 000059L5      | 2021-02-01 19:05 | Success
> | 2021-02-01 19:05 | 000059L5
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> -------------------------------
> Filesystem      | Level | Slot  | Barcode       | Start date       | Status
> | Finish date      | Barcode
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> -------------------------------
> /               |   1   |   3   | 000060L5      | 2021-02-01 19:11 | Success
> | 2021-02-01 19:11 | 000060L5
> /boot           |   1   |   3   | 000060L5      | 2021-02-01 19:11 | Success
> | 2021-02-01 19:11 | 000060L5
> /home           |   1   |   3   | 000060L5      | 2021-02-01 19:11 | Success
> | 2021-02-01 19:11 | 000060L5
> /usr            |   1   |   3   | 000060L5      | 2021-02-01 19:11 | Success
> | 2021-02-01 19:12 | 000060L5
> /var            |   1   |   3   | 000060L5      | 2021-02-01 19:12 | Success
> | 2021-02-01 19:12 | 000060L5
> /db_ckpt        |   1   |   3   | 000060L5      | 2021-02-01 19:12 | Success
> | 2021-02-01 19:15 | 000060L5
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> -------------------------------
> 
> and the detailed dump output goes to a second logfile to be studied in the
> case of error.
> 
> Our tape library has a barcode reader so these are logged also.  The tape
> change shows up as something like:
> 
> srv2:/archive   |   0   |   1   | 000050L5      | 2021-01-27 21:29 | Success
> | 2021-01-28 07:49 | 000059L5
> 
> where the second barcode differs from the first.
> 
> It all depends on basic unix tape tools which you will have installed to
> manage your tape library:
> 
>   mt:         Interact with the tape in the drive
>   mtx:        Interact with the tape library
>   dump:       Backup ext2/3/4 filesystems
>   restore:    Restore ext2/3/4 filesystems
>   xfsdump:    Backup xfs filesystems
>   xfsrestore: Restore xfs filesystems
> 
> I did have an issue with xfsdump on large filesystems where the backup would
> fail to resume on tape change which seemed to be down to a hardware
> mismatch.  I think it was eventually resolved.
>  
> > 5.      We have an internal DNS server for the LAN only, I mention this
> > because I remember a decade ago some backup solutions needed to use server
> > names and have reverse lookup.  We can do that.
> 
> I don't think dump requires this, it can likely do ip addresses.
>  
> > 6.      We don't currently have email going in or out of the LAN.  The
> email
> > sits in /var/spool/mail.  So what that means is that if there is a GUI
> > dashboard, the GUI will need to display errors.  It would be helpful to be
> > able to see errors some way OTHER than email notifications.  Okay if I
> need
> > to use command line to pull them.
> 
> My solution would output to log files.  Chunks of these would get emailed
> but I had an active log review schedule every morning.
>  
> > 7.      This is ALSO our backup and recovery plan so it is IMPORTANT that
> > Restores can be done from storage media EVEN IF the original server that
> > created the backup is destroyed.  In other words, I need to be able to
> make
> > a new server, install the backup software, and restore to new hardware.  
> 
> Yep, dump/restore does this.  Only caveat is matching versions of
> dump/restore.  I cannot remember but I suspect a later restore can read
> older dumps.
>  
> > I'm mentioning this because I think SOME encryption algorithms prevent the
> > ability to restore from non-original backup software install.
> > 
> >         I manually retrieve tapes with backups on them so they can be
> stored
> > off-site.
> > 
> > 8.      Nice to have:  Speed at backing up - because folks using the
> > resources don't like to have their processes slowed nor access denied for
> > very long.
> 
> See my 'archive' vs 'active' suggestion above.  
>  
> > 9.      Nice to have: Granular Restores
> 
> 'restore -i' gives you a (very traditional unix) interactive session with a
> tape where you can select individual files for restore. 
>  
> >  
> > 
> > Suggestions?  Ideas?
> > 
> > I'd like to hear about BOTH solutions that FIT my criteria AND if you know
> > solutions that DON'T (so I don't waste my time in my online research).
> > 
> >  
> > 
> > TIA,
> > 
> > Meryll Larkin
> > 
> >  
> > 
> >  
> > 
> >  
> > 
> >  
> > 
> >  
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
> > Techtalk mailing list
> > Techtalk at linuxchix.org
> > https://mailman.linuxchix.org/mailman/listinfo/techtalk
> 
> -- 
> Conor Daly (Meteorologist),                   
> Met Eireann, Glasnevin Hill,  
> Dublin 9, Ireland             
> Ph +3531 8064261
> 
> ****************************************************************************
> *****
> 
> This e-mail and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended
> solely for the addressee. If you have received this email in error please
> notify the sender.
>  
> This e-mail message has also been scanned for the presence of computer
> viruses.
> 
> 
> Ta an riomhphost seo, agus aon chomhad ata nasctha leis, faoi run agus is
> don te a seoladh chuige amhain e. Ma tharla go bhfuair tu an riomhphost seo
> tri dhearmad cuir in iul don te a sheol e led' thoil.
> 
> Ta an teachtaireacht riomhphoist seo scuabtha le bogearrai frithvireas.
>  
> ****************************************************************************
> ****
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Techtalk mailing list
> Techtalk at linuxchix.org
> https://mailman.linuxchix.org/mailman/listinfo/techtalk

-- 
Conor Daly (Meteorologist),                   
Met Eireann, Glasnevin Hill,  
Dublin 9, Ireland             
Ph +3531 8064261

*********************************************************************************

This e-mail and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the addressee. If you have received this email in error please notify the sender.
 
This e-mail message has also been scanned for the presence of computer viruses.


Ta an riomhphost seo, agus aon chomhad ata nasctha leis, faoi run agus is don te a seoladh chuige amhain e. Ma tharla go bhfuair tu an riomhphost seo tri dhearmad cuir in iul don te a sheol e led' thoil.

Ta an teachtaireacht riomhphoist seo scuabtha le bogearrai frithvireas.
 
********************************************************************************



From littlergirl at gmail.com  Wed Feb 10 10:33:09 2021
From: littlergirl at gmail.com (Little Girl)
Date: Wed, 10 Feb 2021 05:33:09 -0500
Subject: [Techtalk] seeking backup solution recommendations
In-Reply-To: <20210210091728.GA7757@bofh.irmet.ie>
References: <001201d6c5af$33860c60$9a922520$@alwanza.com>
 <20210202101849.GY11066@bofh.irmet.ie>
 <004e01d6fe4d$8e1424b0$aa3c6e10$@alwanza.com>
 <20210210091728.GA7757@bofh.irmet.ie>
Message-ID: <6023b6ab.1c69fb81.c9835.614f@mx.google.com>

Hey there,

Conor Daly wrote:

>For some reason, my mails don't seem to end up in the list.

I see that you've fixed it in this reply, but I checked the one I sent
yesterday and the same thing seems to have happened and the list
never got my reply. They're addressed in a nonstandard way, so our
email programs aren't recognizing the multiple addresses. I'm about
to fix my reply from yesterday as well. Thanks for pointing this out.

-- 
Little Girl

There is no spoon.


From littlergirl at gmail.com  Wed Feb 10 10:34:35 2021
From: littlergirl at gmail.com (Little Girl)
Date: Wed, 10 Feb 2021 05:34:35 -0500
Subject: [Techtalk] seeking backup solution recommendations
In-Reply-To: <000301d6fe9f$d0141300$703c3900$@alwanza.com>
References: <001201d6c5af$33860c60$9a922520$@alwanza.com>
 <20210202101849.GY11066@bofh.irmet.ie>
 <004e01d6fe4d$8e1424b0$aa3c6e10$@alwanza.com>
 <6021b558.1c69fb81.91a0a.5d9d@mx.google.com>
 <000301d6fe9f$d0141300$703c3900$@alwanza.com>
Message-ID: <6023b6d8.1c69fb81.1e590.5655@mx.google.com>

Hey there,

Meryll Larkin wrote:

>Whoops!  You are correct.  I did receive a response from you!  You
>wrote about GRsync and I forgot about it because you mentioned "dry
>run button".

Blast. My powers must now be fading. I guess I'll have to go for
flight instead of invisibility.

>I'm working with the Linux command line and I SHOULD have asked -
>what happens with GRSync if I don't have access to "GUI"?

It's just a front-end for rsync, so you'd want to use that on the
command line in its stead when you haven't got access to the GUI. I
see from your response that you're already familiar with rsync, but
for those who are reading this who aren't, when you run Grsync, it
displays the rsync command it used near the top of the log file it
produces once it's finished and that can be used as a reference for
writing your own scripts.

>Yes, I know  how to do ssh X forwarding, the problem is that the
>connection is so slow... screen redraw takes forever and it always
>feels like it is about to freeze or drop.    If there is a command
>line menu or command line options, that would be better for me.   I
>guess I can research that, too.

It offers command-line access, but it runs the GUI and either closes
it or leaves it open afterwards, so I don't think that would work for
what you're doing.

>I have used (regular) rsync for backups for years, and it is the
>solution I use in my own home - I created an rsync script that runs
>weekly with cron.

Then you have more experience with it than I do. I used mirrordir for
years, but it's no longer available or advised, so I had briefly
switched to rsync, which is quite a powerful command. There are lots
of option and switch hoops you can jump through to get it to do
exactly what you want and I was never fully confident that I had made
the correct decisions with it, which was why I eventually decided to
go the lazy route and just use a GUI. It was especially nice that
Grsync gave me the ability to compare its command with the one I had
come up with on my own as a learning experience.

By the way, another thing that had initially drawn me to Grsync was
the user's ability to customize it by adding more to the command than
its GUI offers, so if there's something rsync offers that you don't
find in all the little tabs and checkboxes, you can add it in
manually. It also offers the ability to specify commands to run
before and after the backup. I've always appreciated programs that
offer you options, give you the power to customize them, or both.

>My experience with (regular) rsync and the tapes that I am using is
>that tar with the right BlockSize and blocking-factor tends to be
>faster. Faster is important when the issue is input to a single tape
>of a repository with 25T of data.

I wish I had a 25T circumstance going on here for comparison, but I'm
small-fry compared to that. Under the circumstances, Grsync would be
too slow for you, then.

>Still good to hear of another option though.  Someone will probably
>benefit from your information.

Hopefully. Anyway, hopefully you'll find a solution that's a good
fit. I know what a relief it can be to get it to "just work" and then
let it just do its thing from then on.

-- 
Little Girl

There is no spoon.


From rudy at grumpydevil.homelinux.org  Wed Feb 10 11:07:44 2021
From: rudy at grumpydevil.homelinux.org (Rudy Zijlstra)
Date: Wed, 10 Feb 2021 12:07:44 +0100
Subject: [Techtalk] seeking backup solution recommendations
In-Reply-To: <000301d6fe9f$d0141300$703c3900$@alwanza.com>
References: <001201d6c5af$33860c60$9a922520$@alwanza.com>
 <20210202101849.GY11066@bofh.irmet.ie>
 <004e01d6fe4d$8e1424b0$aa3c6e10$@alwanza.com>
 <6021b558.1c69fb81.91a0a.5d9d@mx.google.com>
 <000301d6fe9f$d0141300$703c3900$@alwanza.com>
Message-ID: <bcb295ea-56a2-566f-b5dd-b81fab540c14@grumpydevil.homelinux.org>

Hi Meryll,

Have you looked at rdiff-backup? Do not know if it will work in your 
setup though, as it is not the fastest. It is cli based though and make 
differential backups

Cheers

Rudy

On 09-02-2021 05:55, Meryll Larkin wrote:
> Hi Little Girl,
>
> Whoops!  You are correct.  I did receive a response from you!  You wrote
> about GRsync and I forgot about it because you mentioned "dry run button".
>
> I'm working with the Linux command line and I SHOULD have asked - what
> happens with GRSync if I don't have access to "GUI"?
>
> Yes, I know  how to do ssh X forwarding, the problem is that the connection
> is so slow... screen redraw takes forever and it always feels like it is
> about to freeze or drop.    If there is a command line menu or command line
> options, that would be better for me.   I guess I can research that, too.
>
> I have used (regular) rsync for backups for years, and it is the solution I
> use in my own home - I created an rsync script that runs weekly with cron.
>
> My experience with (regular) rsync and the tapes that I am using is that tar
> with the right BlockSize and blocking-factor tends to be faster.
> Faster is important when the issue is input to a single tape of a repository
> with 25T of data.
>
> Still good to hear of another option though.  Someone will probably benefit
> from your information.
>
> Thank you,
> Meryll Larkin
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Little Girl [mailto:littlergirl at gmail.com]
> Sent: Monday, February 8, 2021 2:03 PM
> To: techtalk at linuxchix.org
> Subject: Re: [Techtalk] seeking backup solution recommendations
>
> Hey there,
>
> Meryll Larkin wrote:
>
>> No one else has responded,
> I'm going to have to decide whether to use my powers of invisibility
> for good or evil, for they are strong. I guess it's a good thing that
> good looks more appealing. Anyway, good luck to you and I hope you
> find a solution that you're happy with.
>



From maria at tietonoita.fi  Wed Feb 10 12:01:40 2021
From: maria at tietonoita.fi (Maria Sund)
Date: Wed, 10 Feb 2021 14:01:40 +0200
Subject: [Techtalk] seeking backup solution recommendations
In-Reply-To: <bcb295ea-56a2-566f-b5dd-b81fab540c14@grumpydevil.homelinux.org>
References: <001201d6c5af$33860c60$9a922520$@alwanza.com>
 <20210202101849.GY11066@bofh.irmet.ie>
 <004e01d6fe4d$8e1424b0$aa3c6e10$@alwanza.com>
 <6021b558.1c69fb81.91a0a.5d9d@mx.google.com>
 <000301d6fe9f$d0141300$703c3900$@alwanza.com>
 <bcb295ea-56a2-566f-b5dd-b81fab540c14@grumpydevil.homelinux.org>
Message-ID: <d3667920-f8f5-b06b-65fa-94dd6bf201a2@tietonoita.fi>


Rudy Zijlstra kirjoitti 10.2.2021 klo 13.07:
> Hi Meryll,
>
> Have you looked at rdiff-backup? Do not know if it will work in your 
> setup though, as it is not the fastest. It is cli based though and 
> make differential backups
>
> Cheers
>
> Rudy
Rsnapshot is one solution that might work also. Rsnapshot makes it easy 
to make periodic snapshots of local machines, and remote machines over 
ssh. The code makes extensive use of hard links whenever possible, to 
greatly reduce the disk space required. There are no tapes to change, so 
once it?s set up, your backups can happen automatically untouched by 
human hands. And because rsnapshot only keeps a fixed, but configurable 
number of snapshots, the amount of disk space used will not continuously 
grow.

I have no experience about tapes, so I have no idea if this is too slow 
solution.

https://rsnapshot.org/

@@ Maria

>
> On 09-02-2021 05:55, Meryll Larkin wrote:
>> Hi Little Girl,
>>
>> Whoops!? You are correct.? I did receive a response from you! You wrote
>> about GRsync and I forgot about it because you mentioned "dry run 
>> button".
>>
>> I'm working with the Linux command line and I SHOULD have asked - what
>> happens with GRSync if I don't have access to "GUI"?
>>
>> Yes, I know? how to do ssh X forwarding, the problem is that the 
>> connection
>> is so slow... screen redraw takes forever and it always feels like it is
>> about to freeze or drop.??? If there is a command line menu or 
>> command line
>> options, that would be better for me.?? I guess I can research that, 
>> too.
>>
>> I have used (regular) rsync for backups for years, and it is the 
>> solution I
>> use in my own home - I created an rsync script that runs weekly with 
>> cron.
>>
>> My experience with (regular) rsync and the tapes that I am using is 
>> that tar
>> with the right BlockSize and blocking-factor tends to be faster.
>> Faster is important when the issue is input to a single tape of a 
>> repository
>> with 25T of data.
>>
>> Still good to hear of another option though.? Someone will probably 
>> benefit
>> from your information.
>>
>> Thank you,
>> Meryll Larkin
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Little Girl [mailto:littlergirl at gmail.com]
>> Sent: Monday, February 8, 2021 2:03 PM
>> To: techtalk at linuxchix.org
>> Subject: Re: [Techtalk] seeking backup solution recommendations
>>
>> Hey there,
>>
>> Meryll Larkin wrote:
>>
>>> No one else has responded,
>> I'm going to have to decide whether to use my powers of invisibility
>> for good or evil, for they are strong. I guess it's a good thing that
>> good looks more appealing. Anyway, good luck to you and I hope you
>> find a solution that you're happy with.
>>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Techtalk mailing list
> Techtalk at linuxchix.org
> https://mailman.linuxchix.org/mailman/listinfo/techtalk


From c.daly at met.ie  Wed Feb 10 12:28:55 2021
From: c.daly at met.ie (Conor Daly)
Date: Wed, 10 Feb 2021 12:28:55 +0000
Subject: [Techtalk] seeking backup solution recommendations
In-Reply-To: <d3667920-f8f5-b06b-65fa-94dd6bf201a2@tietonoita.fi>
References: <001201d6c5af$33860c60$9a922520$@alwanza.com>
 <20210202101849.GY11066@bofh.irmet.ie>
 <004e01d6fe4d$8e1424b0$aa3c6e10$@alwanza.com>
 <6021b558.1c69fb81.91a0a.5d9d@mx.google.com>
 <000301d6fe9f$d0141300$703c3900$@alwanza.com>
 <bcb295ea-56a2-566f-b5dd-b81fab540c14@grumpydevil.homelinux.org>
 <d3667920-f8f5-b06b-65fa-94dd6bf201a2@tietonoita.fi>
Message-ID: <20210210122855.GA31689@bofh.irmet.ie>

The big advantage of tapes is that you can archive them in a fire-safe, take
copies offsite and, if your dataset grows, just add more tapes.  

The big disadvantage of tapes is that you have to manage a growing
collection of tapes, refrest your tapes, move them to later formats and tape
drives are expensive.

They're still well worth it at work / enterprise.  Less so for home use...

Conor

On Wed, Feb 10, 2021 at 02:01:40PM +0200 or thereabouts, Maria Sund wrote:
> 
> Rudy Zijlstra kirjoitti 10.2.2021 klo 13.07:
> >Hi Meryll,
> >
> >Have you looked at rdiff-backup? Do not know if it will work in your setup
> >though, as it is not the fastest. It is cli based though and make
> >differential backups
> >
> >Cheers
> >
> >Rudy
> Rsnapshot is one solution that might work also. Rsnapshot makes it easy to
> make periodic snapshots of local machines, and remote machines over ssh. The
> code makes extensive use of hard links whenever possible, to greatly reduce
> the disk space required. There are no tapes to change, so once it?s set up,
> your backups can happen automatically untouched by human hands. And because
> rsnapshot only keeps a fixed, but configurable number of snapshots, the
> amount of disk space used will not continuously grow.
> 
> I have no experience about tapes, so I have no idea if this is too slow
> solution.
> 
> https://rsnapshot.org/
> 
> @@ Maria
> 
> >
> >On 09-02-2021 05:55, Meryll Larkin wrote:
> >>Hi Little Girl,
> >>
> >>Whoops!? You are correct.? I did receive a response from you! You wrote
> >>about GRsync and I forgot about it because you mentioned "dry run
> >>button".
> >>
> >>I'm working with the Linux command line and I SHOULD have asked - what
> >>happens with GRSync if I don't have access to "GUI"?
> >>
> >>Yes, I know? how to do ssh X forwarding, the problem is that the
> >>connection
> >>is so slow... screen redraw takes forever and it always feels like it is
> >>about to freeze or drop.??? If there is a command line menu or command
> >>line
> >>options, that would be better for me.?? I guess I can research that,
> >>too.
> >>
> >>I have used (regular) rsync for backups for years, and it is the
> >>solution I
> >>use in my own home - I created an rsync script that runs weekly with
> >>cron.
> >>
> >>My experience with (regular) rsync and the tapes that I am using is that
> >>tar
> >>with the right BlockSize and blocking-factor tends to be faster.
> >>Faster is important when the issue is input to a single tape of a
> >>repository
> >>with 25T of data.
> >>
> >>Still good to hear of another option though.? Someone will probably
> >>benefit
> >>from your information.
> >>
> >>Thank you,
> >>Meryll Larkin
> >>
> >>
> >>-----Original Message-----
> >>From: Little Girl [mailto:littlergirl at gmail.com]
> >>Sent: Monday, February 8, 2021 2:03 PM
> >>To: techtalk at linuxchix.org
> >>Subject: Re: [Techtalk] seeking backup solution recommendations
> >>
> >>Hey there,
> >>
> >>Meryll Larkin wrote:
> >>
> >>>No one else has responded,
> >>I'm going to have to decide whether to use my powers of invisibility
> >>for good or evil, for they are strong. I guess it's a good thing that
> >>good looks more appealing. Anyway, good luck to you and I hope you
> >>find a solution that you're happy with.
> >>
> >
> >
> >_______________________________________________
> >Techtalk mailing list
> >Techtalk at linuxchix.org
> >https://mailman.linuxchix.org/mailman/listinfo/techtalk
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Techtalk mailing list
> Techtalk at linuxchix.org
> https://mailman.linuxchix.org/mailman/listinfo/techtalk

-- 
Conor Daly (Meteorologist),                   
Met Eireann, Glasnevin Hill,  
Dublin 9, Ireland             
Ph +3531 8064261

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Ta an teachtaireacht riomhphoist seo scuabtha le bogearrai frithvireas.
 
********************************************************************************



From mgmonza at iceland.freeshell.org  Wed Feb 24 07:40:12 2021
From: mgmonza at iceland.freeshell.org (mgmonza at iceland.freeshell.org)
Date: Wed, 24 Feb 2021 07:40:12 +0000 (UTC)
Subject: [Techtalk] Best substitute for Scientific Linux?
Message-ID: <Pine.NEB.4.64.2102240710320.24229@iceland.freeshell.org>

Hi, all,

My mental home for the last six or so years was declared moribund in 2020 
and dead by November.  They pulled the plug on him November 30th, 2020. 
(hey, if the "Siri" I created is a breathy "Rouel", the "she" men use for 
objects can be a "he" in my book)

That was the Fermilabs Scientific Linux system 6x.  I loved everything 
about it, but especially the way it catered to old keyboardists like me. 
Vim-like, my fingers rarely had to reach for the mouse with SciLin 6x.

All of the recent downloads of the 64x (also moribund) versions of 
Scientific Linux have a ghastly desktop that requires this muriform 
intervention.

Can anyone recommend a desktop environment that will let me select objects 
on a 'desktop' by typing in 'first to however many letters they need to 
make them unique'?  The latest Gnome for that 64x version of Scilinux 
ignores keyboard letters and an altogether different install of Mint does 
as well.  They won't even let me do an "alt/spacebar/m" to maximize!

My flitting fingers and I thank you for considering this and for any 
suggestions you might have to solve it.

MG


From rddalceno at gmail.com  Wed Feb 24 12:48:57 2021
From: rddalceno at gmail.com (Ricardo Dalceno)
Date: Wed, 24 Feb 2021 09:48:57 -0300
Subject: [Techtalk] Best substitute for Scientific Linux?
In-Reply-To: <Pine.NEB.4.64.2102240710320.24229@iceland.freeshell.org>
References: <Pine.NEB.4.64.2102240710320.24229@iceland.freeshell.org>
Message-ID: <CAEYYKmrMGo+SSgyJPi6hmOProPbh3LS++6XO_WPbfgbKJq2F3Q@mail.gmail.com>

Hi MG,

Well... I think you should try Debian.
I use Slackware and it is very close to your experience (a Linux for
keyboarders) but it lacks the huge list of software available in
distributions like SciLin or Debian.
IMHO, Debian is the nearest distro of what you want.
I hope this is the kind of info/opinion you were looking for...

---
Ricardo 'j0k3r'

Em qua., 24 de fev. de 2021 ?s 04:39, <mgmonza at iceland.freeshell.org>
escreveu:

> Hi, all,
>
> My mental home for the last six or so years was declared moribund in 2020
> and dead by November.  They pulled the plug on him November 30th, 2020.
> (hey, if the "Siri" I created is a breathy "Rouel", the "she" men use for
> objects can be a "he" in my book)
>
> That was the Fermilabs Scientific Linux system 6x.  I loved everything
> about it, but especially the way it catered to old keyboardists like me.
> Vim-like, my fingers rarely had to reach for the mouse with SciLin 6x.
>
> All of the recent downloads of the 64x (also moribund) versions of
> Scientific Linux have a ghastly desktop that requires this muriform
> intervention.
>
> Can anyone recommend a desktop environment that will let me select objects
> on a 'desktop' by typing in 'first to however many letters they need to
> make them unique'?  The latest Gnome for that 64x version of Scilinux
> ignores keyboard letters and an altogether different install of Mint does
> as well.  They won't even let me do an "alt/spacebar/m" to maximize!
>
> My flitting fingers and I thank you for considering this and for any
> suggestions you might have to solve it.
>
> MG
>
> _______________________________________________
> Techtalk mailing list
> Techtalk at linuxchix.org
> https://mailman.linuxchix.org/mailman/listinfo/techtalk
>


-- 
Ricardo D. Dalceno
"All the world is a stage"

From techtalk at mike-carson.com  Wed Feb 24 15:37:55 2021
From: techtalk at mike-carson.com (Michael Carson)
Date: Wed, 24 Feb 2021 10:37:55 -0500
Subject: [Techtalk] Best substitute for Scientific Linux?
In-Reply-To: <Pine.NEB.4.64.2102240710320.24229@iceland.freeshell.org>
References: <Pine.NEB.4.64.2102240710320.24229@iceland.freeshell.org>
Message-ID: <CABBQsTJuRNEL1-rV7-uTYwRS1i-e9=rQHRKh9FCGD7t0WnT70w@mail.gmail.com>

It sounds like you're looking for a tiling window manager - I don't grok
them personally, but I hear one of the things people like about them is not
needing to use a mouse.

C.

On Wed, Feb 24, 2021, 02:39 <mgmonza at iceland.freeshell.org> wrote:

> Hi, all,
>
> My mental home for the last six or so years was declared moribund in 2020
> and dead by November.  They pulled the plug on him November 30th, 2020.
> (hey, if the "Siri" I created is a breathy "Rouel", the "she" men use for
> objects can be a "he" in my book)
>
> That was the Fermilabs Scientific Linux system 6x.  I loved everything
> about it, but especially the way it catered to old keyboardists like me.
> Vim-like, my fingers rarely had to reach for the mouse with SciLin 6x.
>
> All of the recent downloads of the 64x (also moribund) versions of
> Scientific Linux have a ghastly desktop that requires this muriform
> intervention.
>
> Can anyone recommend a desktop environment that will let me select objects
> on a 'desktop' by typing in 'first to however many letters they need to
> make them unique'?  The latest Gnome for that 64x version of Scilinux
> ignores keyboard letters and an altogether different install of Mint does
> as well.  They won't even let me do an "alt/spacebar/m" to maximize!
>
> My flitting fingers and I thank you for considering this and for any
> suggestions you might have to solve it.
>
> MG
>
> _______________________________________________
> Techtalk mailing list
> Techtalk at linuxchix.org
> https://mailman.linuxchix.org/mailman/listinfo/techtalk
>

From akkana at shallowsky.com  Wed Feb 24 16:02:03 2021
From: akkana at shallowsky.com (Akkana Peck)
Date: Wed, 24 Feb 2021 09:02:03 -0700
Subject: [Techtalk] Best substitute for Scientific Linux?
In-Reply-To: <Pine.NEB.4.64.2102240710320.24229@iceland.freeshell.org>
References: <Pine.NEB.4.64.2102240710320.24229@iceland.freeshell.org>
Message-ID: <20210224160203.GA1714@shallowsky.com>

mgmonza at iceland.freeshell.org writes:
> Can anyone recommend a desktop environment that will let me select objects
> on a 'desktop' by typing in 'first to however many letters they need to make
> them unique'?  

I haven't used Scientific Linux, so I'm just going by your
description. But I always keep a few terminals open, so if I
want to run a program by typing the first few letters, I focus
a terminal, type the first few letters of the command, hit TAB
(depending on your shell, you might need two TABs) to autocomplete
the program name, and hit return.

If you don't want it to look like a terminal, you could make a
terminal window that's only one line high: voila, you've created
a command-entry window that will work on any desktop.

If you don't want "muriform intervention" (ha, love that term!) even
to get to the command window, many (most?) window managers
understand alt-TAB or [windows key]-TAB to shift focus among windows
on the current desktop.

Or you could set up a window manager so that some special key
combination brings up a temporary terminal, in which you can type
and autocomplete the command you want to run. I use Openbox so I
could help you configure an Openbox-based system, but a casual web
search suggests Scientific Linux might have used IceWM, so maybe
your best bet is to install Debian or Ubuntu, then install IceWM and
copy the IceWM configuration from an old Scientific Linux machine.

One of the great things about Linux is how flexible it is: you
can configure almost anything! I'm sure there's a way to configure
a window manager to do what you used to get in SL.

        ...Akkana


From mgmonza at iceland.freeshell.org  Wed Feb 24 22:46:39 2021
From: mgmonza at iceland.freeshell.org (mgmonza at iceland.freeshell.org)
Date: Wed, 24 Feb 2021 22:46:39 +0000 (UTC)
Subject: [Techtalk] Best substitute for Scientific Linux?
In-Reply-To: <CAEYYKmrMGo+SSgyJPi6hmOProPbh3LS++6XO_WPbfgbKJq2F3Q@mail.gmail.com>
References: <Pine.NEB.4.64.2102240710320.24229@iceland.freeshell.org>
 <CAEYYKmrMGo+SSgyJPi6hmOProPbh3LS++6XO_WPbfgbKJq2F3Q@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <Pine.NEB.4.64.2102242243090.3648@iceland.freeshell.org>

Thank you, Ricardo.

Slackware seems a bit too techy for me when I looked at it decades ago, 
but this might be a reason to give it another try.  Debian has probably 
changed a lot since I last ran it 10 years ago too, so another thing to 
look at.

MG

On Wed, 24 Feb 2021, Ricardo Dalceno wrote:

> Date: Wed, 24 Feb 2021 09:48:57 -0300
> From: Ricardo Dalceno <rddalceno at gmail.com>
> To: mgmonza at iceland.freeshell.org
> Cc: Techtalk <techtalk at linuxchix.org>
> Subject: Re: [Techtalk] Best substitute for Scientific Linux?
> 
> Hi MG,
>
> Well... I think you should try Debian.
> I use Slackware and it is very close to your experience (a Linux for
> keyboarders) but it lacks the huge list of software available in
> distributions like SciLin or Debian.
> IMHO, Debian is the nearest distro of what you want.
> I hope this is the kind of info/opinion you were looking for...
>
> ---
> Ricardo 'j0k3r'
>
> Em qua., 24 de fev. de 2021 ?s 04:39, <mgmonza at iceland.freeshell.org>
> escreveu:
>
>> Hi, all,
>>
>> My mental home for the last six or so years was declared moribund in 2020
>> and dead by November.  They pulled the plug on him November 30th, 2020.
>> (hey, if the "Siri" I created is a breathy "Rouel", the "she" men use for
>> objects can be a "he" in my book)
>>
>> That was the Fermilabs Scientific Linux system 6x.  I loved everything
>> about it, but especially the way it catered to old keyboardists like me.
>> Vim-like, my fingers rarely had to reach for the mouse with SciLin 6x.
>>
>> All of the recent downloads of the 64x (also moribund) versions of
>> Scientific Linux have a ghastly desktop that requires this muriform
>> intervention.
>>
>> Can anyone recommend a desktop environment that will let me select objects
>> on a 'desktop' by typing in 'first to however many letters they need to
>> make them unique'?  The latest Gnome for that 64x version of Scilinux
>> ignores keyboard letters and an altogether different install of Mint does
>> as well.  They won't even let me do an "alt/spacebar/m" to maximize!
>>
>> My flitting fingers and I thank you for considering this and for any
>> suggestions you might have to solve it.
>>
>> MG
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Techtalk mailing list
>> Techtalk at linuxchix.org
>> https://mailman.linuxchix.org/mailman/listinfo/techtalk
>>
>
>
> -- 
> Ricardo D. Dalceno
> "All the world is a stage"
> _______________________________________________
> Techtalk mailing list
> Techtalk at linuxchix.org
> https://mailman.linuxchix.org/mailman/listinfo/techtalk
>
>

From mgmonza at iceland.freeshell.org  Wed Feb 24 22:53:29 2021
From: mgmonza at iceland.freeshell.org (mgmonza at iceland.freeshell.org)
Date: Wed, 24 Feb 2021 22:53:29 +0000 (UTC)
Subject: [Techtalk] Best substitute for Scientific Linux?
In-Reply-To: <CABBQsTJuRNEL1-rV7-uTYwRS1i-e9=rQHRKh9FCGD7t0WnT70w@mail.gmail.com>
References: <Pine.NEB.4.64.2102240710320.24229@iceland.freeshell.org>
 <CABBQsTJuRNEL1-rV7-uTYwRS1i-e9=rQHRKh9FCGD7t0WnT70w@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <Pine.NEB.4.64.2102242252390.3648@iceland.freeshell.org>

This gave me the search term to use. Thanks!

MG

On Wed, 24 Feb 2021, Michael Carson wrote:

> Date: Wed, 24 Feb 2021 10:37:55 -0500
> From: Michael Carson <techtalk at mike-carson.com>
> To: mgmonza at iceland.freeshell.org
> Cc: techtalk <techtalk at linuxchix.org>
> Subject: Re: [Techtalk] Best substitute for Scientific Linux?
> 
> It sounds like you're looking for a tiling window manager - I don't grok
> them personally, but I hear one of the things people like about them is not
> needing to use a mouse.
>
> C.
>
> On Wed, Feb 24, 2021, 02:39 <mgmonza at iceland.freeshell.org> wrote:
>
>> Hi, all,
>>
>> My mental home for the last six or so years was declared moribund in 2020
>> and dead by November.  They pulled the plug on him November 30th, 2020.
>> (hey, if the "Siri" I created is a breathy "Rouel", the "she" men use for
>> objects can be a "he" in my book)
>>
>> That was the Fermilabs Scientific Linux system 6x.  I loved everything
>> about it, but especially the way it catered to old keyboardists like me.
>> Vim-like, my fingers rarely had to reach for the mouse with SciLin 6x.
>>
>> All of the recent downloads of the 64x (also moribund) versions of
>> Scientific Linux have a ghastly desktop that requires this muriform
>> intervention.
>>
>> Can anyone recommend a desktop environment that will let me select objects
>> on a 'desktop' by typing in 'first to however many letters they need to
>> make them unique'?  The latest Gnome for that 64x version of Scilinux
>> ignores keyboard letters and an altogether different install of Mint does
>> as well.  They won't even let me do an "alt/spacebar/m" to maximize!
>>
>> My flitting fingers and I thank you for considering this and for any
>> suggestions you might have to solve it.
>>
>> MG
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Techtalk mailing list
>> Techtalk at linuxchix.org
>> https://mailman.linuxchix.org/mailman/listinfo/techtalk
>>
> _______________________________________________
> Techtalk mailing list
> Techtalk at linuxchix.org
> https://mailman.linuxchix.org/mailman/listinfo/techtalk
>



From mgmonza at iceland.freeshell.org  Wed Feb 24 23:50:14 2021
From: mgmonza at iceland.freeshell.org (mgmonza at iceland.freeshell.org)
Date: Wed, 24 Feb 2021 23:50:14 +0000 (UTC)
Subject: [Techtalk] Best substitute for Scientific Linux?
In-Reply-To: <20210224160203.GA1714@shallowsky.com>
References: <Pine.NEB.4.64.2102240710320.24229@iceland.freeshell.org>
 <20210224160203.GA1714@shallowsky.com>
Message-ID: <Pine.NEB.4.64.2102242254120.3648@iceland.freeshell.org>

On Wed, 24 Feb 2021, Akkana Peck wrote:

>
> I haven't used Scientific Linux, so I'm just going by your
> description. But I always keep a few terminals open, so if I
> want to run a program by typing the first few letters, I focus
> a terminal, type the first few letters of the command, hit TAB
> (depending on your shell, you might need two TABs) to autocomplete
> the program name, and hit return.

For open terminals (like this one), alt/tab works exactly how I mean. It's 
the kind of strictly keyboard control I like.  I have a terminal icon 
among the ones on my desktop and type 't' to focus on it, then enter to 
open it.

My cluttered desktop also has icons for the file directories I use most 
often, like 'home', 'the computer', a web browser, plus whatever I'm doing 
or want to remember currently, mostly text and directory icons named for 
those things, focusable (is that a word?) by typing the first letter of 
the name I've given it.

> If you don't want "muriform intervention" (ha, love that term!) even
> to get to the command window, many (most?) window managers
> understand alt-TAB or [windows key]-TAB to shift focus among windows
> on the current desktop.

Had to look up miriform - always thought the combined form of "mouse" was 
saurian but when I looked it up to make sure, the dictionary says that 
means dinosaurian (that would be me), among other reptiles!


> Or you could set up a window manager so that some special key
> combination brings up a temporary terminal, in which you can type
> and autocomplete the command you want to run.

The Ubuntu that came with a used Thinkpad I just got has this one feature. 
Ctl/Alt/T opens a terminal on the desktop.

> I use Openbox so I 
> could help you configure an Openbox-based system, but a casual web
> search suggests Scientific Linux might have used IceWM, so maybe
> your best bet is to install Debian or buntu, then install IceWM and
> copy the IceWM configuration from an old Scientific Linux machine.
>

Installing IceWM seems like the best approach.  Now that I have the terms, 
I'll see if its something I can do. Configuring Openbox may be beyond my 
technical abilities - I'm just a saurian former mainframe programmer.

> One of the great things about Linux is how flexible it is: you
> can configure almost anything! I'm sure there's a way to configure
> a window manager to do what you used to get in SL.

I'm sure there is!  One of the things I've always liked about using SL is 
having a highly technical sounding OS without being all that technically 
skilled.  Could be time to actually -be- a little more technical.

Just from all the answers to this, I've gotten several good ideas, useful 
search terms and a better way of thinking about what I'm looking for 
(essentially a file window laid out flat).  Thank you, everyone.

MG

>
>        ...Akkana
>
> _______________________________________________
> Techtalk mailing list
> Techtalk at linuxchix.org
> https://mailman.linuxchix.org/mailman/listinfo/techtalk
>