Re: [cobalt-users] Backup software and hardware for Qube3

[Malcolm McLeary <mmcleary@xxxxxxx>]

Hi Elliotte,

on 7/7/02 6:28 AM, Elliotte Rusty Harold wrote:

> Has anyone found a good combination of backup software and tape drive
> for the Qube 3 with an external SCSI port? I'm looking for something
> that can back up not only the Qube, but also various remote Linux
> clients without mounting their disks over the network onto the Qube.
> I'm willing to pay for the software, but only if the vendor is
> willing to support the Qube and my client systems in a serious way;
> i.e. no "We only support Red Hat" or "We don't know about that model
> of tape drive."

Nope.

> Ideally I'd also like to back up Windows and MacOS 9 clients.
> Capacity wise I figure I need at least 30GB uncompressed.

I would suggest that you consider running Dantz Retrospect for Windows
<http://www.dantz.com/> on a Windows PC and use a VXA tape drive.  VXA tape
drives are available as internal IDE, internal scsi, external scsi, and
external firewire.

External scsi VXA tape drives have successfully been used with Qube3s
directly, but the big issue is backup software.

Dantz Retrospect for Windows certainly supports both MacOS 9 and Windows
clients and currently if you want to backup data on a Qube3 you simply mount
the SMB shares.  This can all be done automatically.

There are rumours that Dantz is very close to having a working Linux client
(although I've heard Qube3 OS 6.4 breaks it), but you will not find any info
on their web site about it

IMHO you need to focus on RESTORE ... backup is pointless unless you can
restore information reliably and easily.

At this point in time if you need to backup MacOS X clients then you'll need
to run at least Retrospect 5.0 for Mac ... the current Windows version (i.e.
5.6) does not support MacOS X clients.  I'm not sure if the soon to be
available Retrospect for Windows v6.0 supports MacOS X clients.

Cheers,  Malcolm