leland@dragonfly.wri.COM (09/16/90)
> Date: 14 Sep 90 04:23:09 GMT > From: uunet!iuvax.cs.indiana.edu!sahayman (Steve Hayman) > Organization: Computer Science Department, Indiana University > Subject: Apollo administration (was: How to modify the "kernel'?) > Message-Id: <58561@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu> > References: <6881.26e59640@jetson.uh.edu>, <25786@boulder.Colorado.EDU>, <ASHERMAN.90Sep7114636@dino.ulowell.edu> > Sender: uunet!umix.cc.umich.edu!apollo-request > To: apollo@umix.cc.umich.edu > > If Apollo wants departments with diverse computing environments > to embrace Domain/OS alongside Ultrix, SunOS and so on, perhaps they > really ought to make sure that the systems administrator is happy. I fully agree, however... > Wait until your sysadmins start grumbling that they can't use the > BSD "dump" program to backup the machine just like they can on the Suns > and Ultrix machines. Wait until they mention that their scripts for You would think that backups are something easy, but they aren't. You might think that vendors will ship good backup tools with their OS, but this is not the case. dump(8) is a perfect example. Most Unix vendors ship it, so it tends to be used for backups. Most people are impressed with the speed of dump, and its relative ease of use. In some respects, the world of computers has the same attributes as the rest of the world. You can't get something for nothing. In the opinion of this sys admin, the utility of a backup program is its ability to restore files, not the ability to save them. Specifically: 1. dump generates backups that are inconsistent between vendors. For example, a dump tape written with rdump from a NeXT to a Sun cannot be read under any circumstances. 2. dump tapes seem more error prone than other tape archives. After being left out on the shelf for > 6 months, I can only read 1 out of 5 dump tapes. why? I run in an environment where machines and tape drives are continuously being swapped out. The chance of having the same machine/disk/OS revision/tape drive is slight. I don't believe rbak/wbak is the solution, either, simply because it only runs on Apollos. It seems better than dump, although certainly much slower. Standards can, and should, play an important role in this area. To have a standard backup format -- complete with permissions, modification times, file types, and so forth would go a long way in helping us run hetrogeneous networks. OSF, are you listening? Leland Ray Systems Administrator -- Unix Platforms Wolfram Research, Inc. (217) 398-0700 Normal disclaimers apply...