In regard to: Re: [Networker] Other back-up products besides NetWorker,...:

NetWorker works.  It does what it does and it does it reasonably well.  It
handles the most common (and even some of the uncommon) operating systems
and VMware.  It has decent reporting, device sharing, disk to disk backups,
etc.  It's certainly easier to understand than NetBackup.  I would agree
with a previous poster, however, that NetBackup passed it up in overall
functionality quite a few years ago, and NetWorker has never caught up.

As to it being an "enterprise product" or not...  Well.... Let me know when
you can automate copying of its backups to multiple tapes in a large
environment without having to write scripts.  Both NetBackup and (gulp) TSM
have had this for YEARS and NetWorker STILL has nothing.

I think Steve's comments are very reasoned and I agree with a previous
poster -- it's this kind of detailed comparison of NetWorker's flaws that
I personally consider very welcome on the NetWorker mailing list.

I look at the issue Steve brings up from a different viewpoint, however.
I'm frankly very pleased that NetWorker *allows* such deep and relatively
complete scripting.  I've encountered too many products that believe that
if you can't accomplish a task via their GUI, then you don't need to
perform the task.  Those type of products invariably are missing something
I wish they had, and with no other method to accomplish the task, you're
stuck.

I agree that it would be nice if NetWorker exposed this functionality
via the GUI, so that people that are just learning NetWorker have an
easier time with it.  However, the fact that it (and a lot more) can
be done via a powerful set of tools like mminfo, nsrstage, etc., to
me devolves into giving a man a fish vs. teaching a man to fish.

Maybe I'm just behind the times, but is it really the expectation these
days that someone should be able to be responsible for the backups and
data protection of an enterprise without being able to do modest
scripting or being willing to learn?  That's such an alien idea to me
that I have a hard time even understanding where the "no scripting"
crowd is coming from.

Tim
--
Tim Mooney                                             Tim.Mooney AT ndsu DOT 
edu
Enterprise Computing & Infrastructure                  701-231-1076 (Voice)
Room 242-J6, IACC Building                             701-231-8541 (Fax)
North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND 58105-5164

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