rtaylor@tron.UUCP (Randy Taylor) (02/23/91)
Hello world ! :-)) Does anyone out there use HP/Apollo's OmniBack product ? OmniBack is our main backup tool here at Westinghouse for our 140+ node network. It does backups fairly well, but I have some, IMHO, serious gripes about restores. I'd like to voice the gripes here in order to see if I'm being unreasonable or if HP/Apollo is at fault. Here's a description of the situation : Backups can be scripted and run unattended via cron. Restores can't be done in a similar fashion. Why not ??? Why do we want unattended restores, you ask ? When we upgrade the O.S. around our network from 10.1 to 10.3, we backup all of our data, INVOL the disk at the new O.S. level and then restore the third party software and our data. The reason we go to all that trouble is because we've been burned more than once by attempting to upgrade an O.S. using the update procedures HP/Apollo suggests. After the O.S. install has been completed, we restore the data on a group of nodes via OmniBack. The problem is that it takes 6 hours to a full 2 Gigabyte restore and I find my self forced to sit there while the restore runs because OmniBack won't allow (to my knowledge) an unattended restore ! What a pain ! You see, we're pretty security conscious around here. While it is true that I could script the individual nbsrestore commands and dump them into a DM shell, I still have to deal with the dialog screen that comes up asking for the "go" command. Yes, the "go" can be patched into the shell dump as well, but if I leave and go home, I leave an unattended workstation, which is a security violation. :-(( Yes, there are screen locking programs, but a crp and sigp -b kills the screen locking every time. Wouldn't it be much easier if OmniBack could do a restore the same way it does a backup ? Is this too much to ask of HP/Apollo ? Ok, you ask, why didn't you go with another vendor of 8mm products ? We started out with Workstation Solutions 8mm drives back in the 9.7 days. They've been in the shop more than they've been on-line. "In the shop" means pack'em up and ship 'em back to New Hampshire because there is no local support. When HP/Apollo came out with OmniBack, we were so happy to be rid of the Workstation Solutions headache, we just didn't research all the details of OmniBack software. We were just happy to see a product that could be supported locally. I submitted an APR two months ago in the naive belief that I would actually get a response. Ha ! Nothing, zip, el-zilcho. No acknowledgement whatsoever. Well, what does the sys-admin/user community have to say ? Does anyone have a way to make the OmniBack restore process run safely in the background ? Does anyone else need unattended restores ? Is there another vendor that produces reliable, security-conscious 8mm hardware/software that has local support ? I am humbly seeking opinion/commentary and help on this issue. Many thanks in advance and warmest regards :-) Randy Taylor Westinghouse Electric Corp. Baltimore, Maryland -- rtaylor@sky00.bwi.wec.com from an Internet site (preferred) rtaylor@tron.bwi.wec.com from an Internet site (alternate) "...you know I have the greatest enthusiam for the mission." HAL 9000
thompson@pan.ssec.honeywell.com (John Thompson) (02/23/91)
> Does anyone out there use HP/Apollo's OmniBack product ? OmniBack is our main > backup tool here at Westinghouse for our 140+ node network. It does backups > fairly well, but I have some, IMHO, serious gripes about restores. I'd > like to voice the gripes here in order to see if I'm being unreasonable > or if HP/Apollo is at fault. Yes. We have had version 1.2 going now for almost a year. (1.1 for about a month or 2 before that). > Here's a description of the situation : > Backups can be scripted and run unattended via cron. Restores can't be > done in a similar fashion. Why not ??? Sure they can. If you do a restore, and specify the input-device AND the tape-label, nbsrestore doesn't bother to ask questions unless the tape drive is offline when it tries to access it. > You see, we're pretty security conscious around here. While it is true > that I could script the individual nbsrestore commands and dump them > into a DM shell, I still have to deal with the dialog screen that > comes up asking for the "go" command. Yes, the "go" can be patched into > the shell dump as well, but if I leave and go home, I leave an > unattended workstation, which is a security violation. :-(( Yes, there > are screen locking programs, but a crp and sigp -b kills the screen > locking every time. ACL the `node_data/node_owners file. Anybody who has 'p' rights to it can sigp a process. Anyone else can't. I have used this w/ no problems at 10.1, 10.2 and 10.3 (also 10.x.p). What's your's set at? > > I submitted an APR two months ago in the naive belief that I would actually > get a response. Ha ! Nothing, zip, el-zilcho. No acknowledgement > whatsoever. Yes, HP/Apollo has had some problems w/ this. In general, I have found that /etc/mkapr is a good way to remind yourself what problems you had a year ago, since that's how long it takes to see a response. > Does anyone have a way to make the OmniBack restore process run safely in > the background ? Does anyone else need unattended restores ? Try the above items. We don't use unattended restore, though maybe we should. (In general, we try to not be paranoid). > Many thanks in advance and warmest regards :-) Many welcomes, and the best of luck. -- jt -- John Thompson Honeywell, SSEC Plymouth, MN 55441 thompson@pan.ssec.honeywell.com Me? Represent Honeywell? You've GOT to be kidding!!!
rkw@OKC-UNIX.AF.MIL (Ron Wallman LAETA) (02/25/91)
I found a program called "bgrnd" in the Apollo ADUS software library that
I use to run programs/scripts in background. You can set a time for the
process to run. I'm certainly no expert on Domain/Unix but this little
program has met my humble needs very well.
I use it to do my Omniback backups. I just tried it with the restore
function (Refer to Mr Thompson comments) and it works fine.
Ronald K Wallman
United States Air Force
Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center
OC-ALC/MMECT (Bldg 3220)
Tinker AFB, OK 73145-5990
(405)-736-5575 DDN Mail Address: rkw@okc-unix.af.mil