[OpenAFS] backup suggestions

[Jason C. Wells]

On Fri, 23 Jan 2004, Hendrik Hoeth wrote:

> Thus spake John Koyle (jkoyle@rfpdepot.com):
>
> > Last I checked, Amanda suffers the same problem Thomas is trying to
> > avoid - single volumes cannot span multiple tapes.
>
> We use split for cutting large dumps into chunks of max. 2G.

Using amanda, if one accessed the files to be backed up through the AFS
client, then one would be backing up files and not AFS volumes.  Files
would be presumably smaller.  Also, files would only be backed up at a
certain dump level if the file was modified.

A volume would almost always be modified, and therefore almost always
backed up.  Volumes are bigger than files and present certain
difficulties.  Consistency of a large volume under heavy use while being
backed up by amanda is something I would look closely at.

I haven't configured AFS backup (butc) yet.  I do have an amanda
installation.  I intend to use it in this manner to back up AFS files as
soon as the FreeBSD AFS client is ready for prime time.  I may find out
that my assumptions are incorrect in the future, but that's the plan as of
right now.

I haven't really integrated my thinking about volume sizing with my
thinking about available backup media.  I am sure I'll kick myself later.

Later,
Jason C. Wells