Advice needed for backups

[Pedro Fernandes Macedo]

Ian McKinnon wrote:

>Yes, but the solution of copying to fake 4GB tapes and then to DVD-R/RW
>somehow seems inelegant.  Especially when you simply do not have the room to
>hold the images before you can burn them to DVD-R/RW.  I have 500GB total on
>my server spread across four drives and I may be able to find maybe 100GB in
>30 and 50GB chunks, but not really a solution for doing a system backup.  
>
Then probably you'll have issues. In a normal setup (doing a tape 
backup) , amanda needs a disk where it puts all the temporary data. Only 
after preparing the data , it transfers everything to tape. So , if a 
tape error occurs , you'll still have the backup on disk, allowing you 
to run amflush on the next day and flush the backup to another tape.

>It is just seeming that optical is starting to be feasible as one DVD-R/RW
>single later basically holds as much data as an older DAT2 tape (about
>4.5GB) not to mention dual layer DVDs and the size keeps rising every year.
>Not to mention faster (at least my old DAT2 drive seemed to take forever
>writing a tape) and maybe less prone to damage (magnets anyone?).  Though as
>always stepping on tapes or DVDs is nearly always fatal.  Of course price is
>always an issue... Hmmm a 100 pack of 4GB DVD-R is about $34 US for me...
>Plus the drives are fairly cheap..
>  
>
The problem is that with such backup needs , I really suggest going the 
expensive way.. There are tape drives that probably have a capacity that 
fits your needs better than a standard DVD or a double layer DVD.

--
Pedro Macedo