andy@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU (Andy S Poling) (05/29/90)
In article <29873@cup.portal.com> thad@cup.portal.com (Thad P Floryan) writes: >steveb@shade.ann-arbor.mi.us (Steve Barber) in ><1990May13.001234.23763@shade.ann-arbor.mi.us> writes: > > Has anyone written any UNIX software to do system backups through a > serial port to another computer? I have an AT&T 3B1 without a tape > drive that I'd like to back up to a Sun's disk, and put it on tape > from there. [...] > (I wish SLIP existed on the 3B1...) > [...] >Considering the scarcity of the tape backup subsystem for the UNIXPC, it >seems to me the best course of action would be to acquire one of the WIB/3B >Ethernet cards that Bob Slaski is offering at $300; to that you add about >another $300 for an AUI cable, a ThinNet transceiver, and whatever additional >RG-58 coax you need ... to connect your 3B1 direct to the SUN. > >With the networking subroutines supplied with the WIN/3B (and the assumed >counterparts on the SUN system), you could conjure up a front-end (and a >corresponding back-end) to pipe your 3B1's backup thru cpio and through the >new program, over the net, and even, if you choose, directly to the tape >drive on the SUN system. You'd do the opposite for a restore operation. This is how I back up my 3b1 w/ 40M drive (and ethernet card) - I use tar (though I suppose cpio would work similiarly). I pipe the output of tar into a remsh-ed dd on a networked Ultrix box. Backs up the entire disk to the Ultrix box's tape drive in less then 1/2 hour without my supervision. The only gotcha is that you have to restore not only the foundation set, but also the WIN3B TCP/IP package before you can restore. I figure that beats the hell outta using 100+ floppies. -Andy -- Andy Poling Internet: andy@gollum.hcf.jhu.edu Network Services Group Bitnet: ANDY@JHUNIX Homewood Academic Computing Voice: (301)338-8096 Johns Hopkins University UUCP: uunet!mimsy!aplcen!jhunix!andy