All,

Hopefully this isn't off-topic...
I'm posting here because all of the machines are AIX 5.2+, although
there may be a few linux machines in the near future.

I need some advice on backups. What I'm doing now...
I currently have 8 pseries/rs6000s and am using Sysback for 7 of them,
2 of which have small IBM autoloaders attached (the rest backing up to
them over the LAN). One machine has it's own tape drive and uses
native AIX commands for backup (and Cybernetics software for the
15-slot tape library). This is to make disaster recovery easier for
that box, which I have to do once a year at Sungard.

This is all working well. I might be getting a few new pseries
machines in, but for the first time, some of them will be at remote
locations. They will not backup over the WAN, but since there will
probably be more than one machine at each remote site, they will need
to backup over that site's LAN.

Here is my dilemma...
What I'm doing now will not work remotely, because the solution needs
to be totally automated. Here, the Cybernetics solution works well,
and is totally automated, but since it's native AIX, can't backup over
the network. The Sysback software backs up well, but doesn't have any
robotic arm control software, so it works fine until all of the tapes
are spit out, then someone has to swap them out.

TSM would work, but is cost prohibitive. I was thinking of using
Sysback and piping it to Cybernetics tape libraries (using the
Cybernetics software for the robotic arm), but was hoping to get some
other ideas from some folks who have had more experience dealing with
this kind of thing. TIA

nixmonkey@gmail.com wrote:
> All,
>
> Hopefully this isn't off-topic...
> I'm posting here because all of the machines are AIX 5.2+, although
> there may be a few linux machines in the near future.
>
> I need some advice on backups. What I'm doing now...
> I currently have 8 pseries/rs6000s and am using Sysback for 7 of them,
> 2 of which have small IBM autoloaders attached (the rest backing up to
> them over the LAN). One machine has it's own tape drive and uses
> native AIX commands for backup (and Cybernetics software for the
> 15-slot tape library). This is to make disaster recovery easier for
> that box, which I have to do once a year at Sungard.
>
> This is all working well. I might be getting a few new pseries
> machines in, but for the first time, some of them will be at remote
> locations. They will not backup over the WAN, but since there will
> probably be more than one machine at each remote site, they will need
> to backup over that site's LAN.
>
> Here is my dilemma...
> What I'm doing now will not work remotely, because the solution needs
> to be totally automated. Here, the Cybernetics solution works well,
> and is totally automated, but since it's native AIX, can't backup over
> the network. The Sysback software backs up well, but doesn't have any
> robotic arm control software, so it works fine until all of the tapes
> are spit out, then someone has to swap them out.
>
> TSM would work, but is cost prohibitive. I was thinking of using
> Sysback and piping it to Cybernetics tape libraries (using the
> Cybernetics software for the robotic arm), but was hoping to get some
> other ideas from some folks who have had more experience dealing with
> this kind of thing. TIA

I use

http://www.storix.com

(its originally born from sysback and can do all your tape control
stuff I believe)

Im a little unclear as to your setup which you describe above (do you
or dont you want to backup over the WAN?).

Id do something like this.

1. Make one server a Storix Admin Server (required)

2. Servers with tape drives attached can be made Storix Backup Servers
(can have a server as a Storix Admin server and Storix Backup server if
you wish - we do, just means one server does both functions).

3. The rest of the servers are clients (note admin server and backup
server can/will also be clients)

4. The admin server GUI is used to schedule backups and do all manner
of storix stuff.

5. You schedule your backups so that each client (inc admin and backup
server) backup to the tape drives attached to the backup servers
(storix allows remote tape drive backup)

6. You can either make use of all your drives or perhaps just one drive
on one server - all up to you.

Any Qs on Storix let me know as we've used it for many years and have
about 60 clients on it. Does all sysback does and a lot more.

Also it works with linux but we dont have any of our linux on storix
yet, although we have just tested it and may do, it depends what else
we find out there in the market.

Storix is pretty cheap as well, I think its about $5000 for the server
and clients are about $600 each (IIRC). There is no yearly cost and
support is free. fixes/upgrades etc are free but actual version
upgrades you pay for, eg v5 to v6 is a cost but 5.5 to 5.6 is free.

Regards,

Scott

scott_doyl...@johnlewis.co.uk wrote:
> nixmonkey@gmail.com wrote:
> > All,
> >
> > Hopefully this isn't off-topic...
> > I'm posting here because all of the machines are AIX 5.2+, although
> > there may be a few linux machines in the near future.
> >
> > I need some advice on backups. What I'm doing now...
> > I currently have 8 pseries/rs6000s and am using Sysback for 7 of them,
> > 2 of which have small IBM autoloaders attached (the rest backing up to
> > them over the LAN). One machine has it's own tape drive and uses
> > native AIX commands for backup (and Cybernetics software for the
> > 15-slot tape library). This is to make disaster recovery easier for
> > that box, which I have to do once a year at Sungard.
> >
> > This is all working well. I might be getting a few new pseries
> > machines in, but for the first time, some of them will be at remote
> > locations. They will not backup over the WAN, but since there will
> > probably be more than one machine at each remote site, they will need
> > to backup over that site's LAN.
> >
> > Here is my dilemma...
> > What I'm doing now will not work remotely, because the solution needs
> > to be totally automated. Here, the Cybernetics solution works well,
> > and is totally automated, but since it's native AIX, can't backup over
> > the network. The Sysback software backs up well, but doesn't have any
> > robotic arm control software, so it works fine until all of the tapes
> > are spit out, then someone has to swap them out.
> >
> > TSM would work, but is cost prohibitive. I was thinking of using
> > Sysback and piping it to Cybernetics tape libraries (using the
> > Cybernetics software for the robotic arm), but was hoping to get some
> > other ideas from some folks who have had more experience dealing with
> > this kind of thing. TIA
>
> I use
>
> http://www.storix.com
>
> (its originally born from sysback and can do all your tape control
> stuff I believe)
>
> Im a little unclear as to your setup which you describe above (do you
> or dont you want to backup over the WAN?).
>
> Id do something like this.
>
> 1. Make one server a Storix Admin Server (required)
>
> 2. Servers with tape drives attached can be made Storix Backup Servers
> (can have a server as a Storix Admin server and Storix Backup server if
> you wish - we do, just means one server does both functions).
>
> 3. The rest of the servers are clients (note admin server and backup
> server can/will also be clients)
>
> 4. The admin server GUI is used to schedule backups and do all manner
> of storix stuff.
>
> 5. You schedule your backups so that each client (inc admin and backup
> server) backup to the tape drives attached to the backup servers
> (storix allows remote tape drive backup)
>
> 6. You can either make use of all your drives or perhaps just one drive
> on one server - all up to you.
>
> Any Qs on Storix let me know as we've used it for many years and have
> about 60 clients on it. Does all sysback does and a lot more.
>
> Also it works with linux but we dont have any of our linux on storix
> yet, although we have just tested it and may do, it depends what else
> we find out there in the market.
>
> Storix is pretty cheap as well, I think its about $5000 for the server
> and clients are about $600 each (IIRC). There is no yearly cost and
> support is free. fixes/upgrades etc are free but actual version
> upgrades you pay for, eg v5 to v6 is a cost but 5.5 to 5.6 is free.
>
> Regards,
>
> Scott

BTW - it sounds a like a bit from your post that you arent removing
your tapes and sending them offsite, you say you want it totally
automated - although Im sure you do remove your tapes each day??, If
this isnt the case but if it is then Id advise you to make sure you do
so.

Regards,
Scott

Thanks, Scott.

Yes, I'm sure the tapes will be brought offsite. That is the only
activity desired unless there is a problem.

OK, I've learned a little here...
Looking at Storix's manual was interesting, because it helped me
understand what the other products were doing.

Looks like Storix and Sysback are about the same when it comes to
controlling the library robotic arm. Basically....they don't. You
need to rely on tapeutil to do that, which comes with the IBM tape
device driver. Even TSM just uses tapeutil to move the tapes. My
current two little libraries can be in random or sequential mode, and
I've had them in sequential because I thought I had to. This forces
you to load the first tape manually, which has been fine here at
corporate (but it won't be at the remote sites). Tapeutil will allow
you to go one step further and load tapes as well (if in random mode).

Since I can now get the OS to do what I need at the command line (in a
script), I think I'll stick with Sysback at the remote sites, since we
already use it.

Thanks for the reply.

Hi,


may be this helps..


http://www.bakbone.com/products/backup_and_restore/




Naresh Narayanan



nixmonkey@gmail.com wrote:
> Thanks, Scott.
>
> Yes, I'm sure the tapes will be brought offsite. That is the only
> activity desired unless there is a problem.
>
> OK, I've learned a little here...
> Looking at Storix's manual was interesting, because it helped me
> understand what the other products were doing.
>
> Looks like Storix and Sysback are about the same when it comes to
> controlling the library robotic arm. Basically....they don't. You
> need to rely on tapeutil to do that, which comes with the IBM tape
> device driver. Even TSM just uses tapeutil to move the tapes. My
> current two little libraries can be in random or sequential mode, and
> I've had them in sequential because I thought I had to. This forces
> you to load the first tape manually, which has been fine here at
> corporate (but it won't be at the remote sites). Tapeutil will allow
> you to go one step further and load tapes as well (if in random mode).
>
> Since I can now get the OS to do what I need at the command line (in a
> script), I think I'll stick with Sysback at the remote sites, since we
> already use it.
>
> Thanks for the reply.