Thanks for the prompt replies.
One of my concerns about NetWorker was that normal users couldn't use it
without being added to the "operator" list and hence end up with the same
privilege as root as far as file permissions are concerned. Several
people pointed out this is in fact not the case so I must have either
installed or used NetWorker incorrectly.
My other concern was that NetWorker uses a proprietary format as compared
to other packages like BudTools which uses cpio, tar and dump. A couple
of people said NetWorker's method is safer in that bad blocks may be
recovered, or at least the rest of the tape remains readable. Granted
this is a nice feature - I've come from a VMS environment where VMS BACKUP
did employ consistency and redundancy checks so I would welcome this in any
system backup tool. This is especially so for the users who would
normally only have one copy of their data files. When I do a daily
unix-dump of the servers, I should be able to go back and restore most if
not all of the tapes in the event of a disaster recovery procedure. If
the last one is bad and I had to go back to the one before, I'd lose one
days work - not a big disaster. For user's own backups, the risk is far
greater and therefore a reliable backup system is more important.
I'm convinced I should reconsider NetWorker. I just wished it had tar as
an option so the users can easily generate a tape for an outsider, and
perhaps dump so I can automatically make a monthly grandfather backup on
the stacker of everything to simplify the recovery process in the event of
a major disaster. If anyone has somehow implemented at least the tar
option please let me know.
Again, thanks to all who replied.
--
Jack N. Churchill | Jack.Churchill_at_dem.csiro.au
CSIRO Division of Exploration and Mining | http://www.csiro.au
PO Box 136 North Ryde NSW 2113 | Phone: +61 2 887 8884
Australia | Fax: +61 2 887 8921
Received on Sat Feb 11 1995 - 03:28:28 NZDT