Very Computer

We have recently obtained hardware from Silicon Graphics. I would be interested
in hearing of peoples experiences with BRU. Also, what are the best options/
args for use with Exabyte tapes?

Many thanks in advance, Bill

| We have recently obtained hardware from Silicon Graphics. I would be interested
| in hearing of peoples experiences with BRU. Also, what are the best options/
| args for use with Exabyte tapes?

The options to use with 8mm tapes shouldn't really be much
different than those with any other drive, although
you might want to use a larger blocking factor, say around
256 for a bit better performance.  No need to specify
tape size.
--
Let no one tell me that silence gives consent,  |   Dave Olson
because whoever is silent dissents.             |   Silicon Graphics, Inc.

Quote:>We have recently obtained hardware from Silicon Graphics. I would be interested
>in hearing of peoples experiences with BRU. Also, what are the best options/
>args for use with Exabyte tapes?

>Many thanks in advance, Bill

I've been using BRU on my Sun for almost a year now. Great program, no problems, has
lots of useful features. Of particular interest is the compression stuff which gives
me 2 to 1 reduction when going to tape. I'm getting roughly 5 GIGs on my exabyte without
upgrading from my 2.3G unit to one of the newer ones (there is a CPU penalty though).
I would strongly recommend this program.

The following is a script I use to do backups, and to create a log of each backup.
Hope this helps....

#!/bin/csh
# network backup                D.Coelho 9/14/90

# choose our backup device
set MT = /dev/rst1

# this is where the backup log file will be stored
set BACKUPDIR = /home/archive/backups

# set to -v -vv -vvv or -vvvv for debug output, set -Z for compression
set OPTIONS = -Z

# backup full file system, minus /tmp
set FILES = "/ /usr /var /usr/local /home /work"

# construct the backup record file name
set D = `date`
set FNAME = $D[2].$D[3].$D[6].BRUFULL

# create the backup log file
touch $BACKUPDIR/$FNAME

# setup some bru environment variables
setenv BRUTAB /usr/local/lib/bru/brutab
setenv BRUXPAT /usr/local/lib/bru/bruxpat
setenv BRUEXECLOG /var/adm/bruexeclog

# use the following if /tmp is not mounted
# setenv BRUTMPDIR /var/tmp
# this should be faster, runs in memory
setenv BRUTMPDIR /tmp

echo "-------- START FULL NETWORK BACKUP --------" | tee -a $BACKUPDIR/$FNAME
echo "Backup History in $BACKUPDIR/$FNAME" | tee -a $BACKUPDIR/$FNAME
echo "" | tee -a $BACKUPDIR/$FNAME
df | tee -a $BACKUPDIR/$FNAME
mt -f $MT rew |& tee -a $BACKUPDIR/$FNAME

# record backup start time
echo "" | tee -a $BACKUPDIR/$FNAME
date | tee -a $BACKUPDIR/$FNAME
echo "" | tee -a $BACKUPDIR/$FNAME

echo "***** BRU full backup of $FILES *****" | tee -a $BACKUPDIR/$FNAME
/usr/local/bin/bru -c $OPTIONS -L "BRU backup $FNAME" -B -m -f $MT $FILES |& tee -a $BACKUPDIR/$FNAME
/usr/local/bin/bru -g -b 64K -vvvv -B -f $MT |& tee -a $BACKUPDIR/$FNAME

# pickup the log information from the BRU log file
brulog 2 </var/adm/bruexeclog | awk '{print "tail ",$1," </var/adm/bruexeclog"}' | csh | tee -a $BACKUPDIR/$FNAME

# unload the tape
mt -f $MT offline |& tee -a $BACKUPDIR/$FNAME

# record backup stop time
echo "" | tee -a $BACKUPDIR/$FNAME
date | tee -a $BACKUPDIR/$FNAME

echo "" | tee -a $BACKUPDIR/$FNAME
echo "-------- END FULL NETWORK BACKUP --------" | tee -a $BACKUPDIR/$FNAME

--


43000 christy street                   voice: (510) 770-0875
fremont, ca 94538-3198                 fax:   (510) 770-0728

We have been using bru for about 9 months now, and it has saved numerous
man-hours.  We backup to a 4mm device, using bru's compression option.
Normally, I like to use standard Unix utilities, but in the area of backups,
I find Unix lacking.  bru's ability to do a verify (of a running system)
of a tape for errors gives me peace of mind that I could not get from
tar or dump.  We're using the script 'incbru' that came on the distribution
tape, which has worked well.  I've modified it to build a list of files
that are on each daily tape.

We did have some problems getting it to run correctly with the 4mm, but
EST was able to us running within several days.  All problems could be
attributed to DEC's device driver for the 4mm.  We are running a DECsystem
5500 running Ultrix 4.2.