Just because your organization has gone to backups on multi-petabit NAS devices 
doesn't mean you don't have a use for AMANDA. You still need something to drive 
that NAS system and, I see nothing wrong with AMANDA for that purpose.  

Yes, the NAS vendor (EMC?) is going to have a full blown software solution for 
you, complete with remote access administrative tools and a whole fleet of tech 
support genies to save your sorry keister when you do something stupid but,... 
if you have network access to storage space, so does AMANDA.  Just do a 
tapeless configure that writes backups to the NAS.  

Up sides: you can get as broad or fine grained as you want and you have the 
ability to impose user quotas.  Use a little bit of clever scripting and you 
have a means of rotating backup files so you only keep the most recent ### 
complete backup cycles.

Down sides: I haven't thought of any yet.

D. Keith Higgs <mailto:dkh2 AT cwru DOT edu> x0559
 Case Western Reserve University, Webmaster - University Library
 Additional Information at http://www.cwru.edu/UL/ and http://keith.cwru.edu/
"Follow the white rabbit."


> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-amanda-users AT amanda DOT org 
> [mailto:owner-amanda-users AT amanda DOT org] On Behalf Of barryc
> Sent: Thursday, March 13, 2003 11:35 AM
> To: amanda-users AT amanda DOT org
> Subject: Re: tapes are doomed
> 
> 
> While I am more than willing to grant that tapes are a LOT 
> more durable than 
> powered-down IDE drives, I'd still tend to frown on people 
> tossing backups of 
> critical information across the room.
> 
> Before I decided to go with a DDS-3 system, I looked long and 
> hard at going the 
> backup-to-disk path.  What finally sold me was the fact that 
> DDS-3 tapes can be 
> had for ~$5/ea if you know where to look. (and buy by the box)
> 
> I don't have much data to back up (probably less than 50GB 
> atm) and spreading a 
> full backup across 5 tapes appeals to me.
> 
> A number of companies make removable hard-drive racks with 
> IDE-to-USB2.0 bridges 
> built-in.  One example is 
> http://www.enhance-> tech.com/products/ER4610UA.html .
> (NOTE: 
> no affiliation.  
> That's just the first example I stumbled across via a 
> quick google.  There's also people selling similar systems on Ebay)
> 
> If your backup system supports USB, you can insert the drive 
> while your system 
> is running, turn the drive on (via the key), mount it, do 
> your backup, unmount 
> the drive, turn it off, and then remove it and put it in storage.
> 
> >Whenever someone at work criticizes me for spending money on 
> LTO tapes
> >when IDE drives are "cheaper", I just do the following:
> >
> >    - Go grab a chip database archive tape off the shelf in the
> >      computer room.
> >
> >    - Walk in their office, toss the tape across the office, they
> >      catch it (or not!), I ask them to toss it back, then I drop
> >      the tape on their desktop from a half-meter up.
> >
> >    - Then I ask them if I can grab the hard disk out of their
> >      desk top computer and do the same schtick.  No takers yet.
> >
> >This kind of (reletive) robustness is an admirable quality for media
> >that are going to be transported back and forth from 
> off-site storage.
> >
> >I'm very glad cheap IDE disks are available to use for holdingdisk,
> >though!  That's a very good thing.
> >
> 
>