hey all,

i have a Dell PowerVault 114T, with a LTO Ultrium 2 Drive. i posted a couple of weeks ago asking for a good tape backup program to use, and was directed to Amanda. after many days of messing around, i simply cannot get it to work, getting all kinds of errors.

i was wondering if there is any graphical tape backup software around that i could try, as it seems that command based programs dont like me much.

if it helps, i have, apart from the backup server, a file/proxy server running RHEL4.5, a PDC/mail server running RHEL5, and 5-10 WinXP clients with important data.

i dont particularly mind if it's command based, but amada seems a bit too complicated for my liking, even with the quick start guide.

if you cant think of anything for Linux, i still have the Win2000 Server computer sitting there, but the scheduling on the backup program provided with it does not work, in that i would set a backup to run at say 8pm, but the backup would not run. manual backups worked fine, with the same settings.

Currently I use Symantec Backup Exec (used to be Varitas Backup Exec). It runs on Windows but is very easy to setup and configure. It backs up Linux also.

If anyone has solution for Linux (commercial or not) I would also love to know as learning the non graphical solution takes more time then I have. Most of our servers are Linux--only 2 Win servers-- so to have the backup software run on Linux would be ideal.

i have heard of backup exec, but the problem is that it costs about $1000! if need be we can pay that much, but i was hoping someone in the free world would have something half decent...

So, switch from linux to Windows and use Backup Exec.

Sorry, I suppose that's a bit rude. I love my Mac (and wouldn't touch Windows), but I grew up with mainframes and manage sendmail, apache, samba, netatalk, amanda, and a mess of other things. So I may have a little trouble relating.

Did you ask for help with Amanda? There's a bit of a learning curve getting up, but then it just takes care of itself. There is a quickstart guide under documentation on the wiki at zmanda:

http://wiki.zmanda.com/index.php/Quick_start

And there is lots of support on the Amanda user's list. I could try to help you here, but there are lots of Amanda users and quick responses there.

I would also note that backups can get complicated and do require some understanding and thought. In a job I had before, they had a large installed base of Windows and got an LTO tape library and Veritas Netbackup (now Symantec Backup Exec). The Windows admin, who was no dummy, had to go to a week long training program on Netbackup and spent weeks getting the thing up and running. So, just because it has a graphical interface doesn't mean it is going to be easy.

If you are willing to pay money for backup software and want the easiest and best for a single computer or small workgroup, then Retrospect from EMC (used to be Retrospect from Dantz Development), would be my choice. However, it won't scale like Amanda, and it doesn't have all the automated error recovery that makes Amanda so smooth when it's in production over time.

Another possibility is Bacula, which can be a bit complicated to set up, but at least has some decent graphical/webGUI tools.

Worth investigating, at least.

http://www.bacula.org

Overall, though, I have to agree with choogendyk; if you really feel more comfortable, and this is an actual production server/set of data, stick with something you can handle--you always can learn linux technologies on a test machine.

Good luck!