Need Suggestions for Automated Backup

[Alma J Wetzker]

CD-Rom backups are fine.  The reason it is not used much is capacity.  At 
800MB they just don't hold that much of a usefull system used by many people. 
  DVD-R backups may help, but they cost.

I like backing up to a HD on another system.  The drive is used only for 
backups.  It can be removable and stored offsite if desired.  It is also fast 
and potentially less expensive than tape and less irritating than keeping 
track of LOTS of CD-Roms.

It really depends on how big your backup data requirements are.  (And how 
available/secure a tradeoff you are willing to make.)

     -- Alma

Chong Yu Meng wrote:
> Hi All,
> 
> I'm going to be deploying another set of servers very soon and need to 
> work out some kind of backup scheme for servers that will be running a 
> database and several web applications.
> 
> I know that most people use a tape drive and cron job to backup stuff. 
> However, right now my budget is really tight, and I was wondering how 
> good CD-ROM backups are. I haven't heard of anyone using it, and I'm 
> wondering if it is because they are unreliable. I'm thinking of the 
> following scheme:
> 
> 1. Tar all files to be archived into a humongous file
> 2. Mount CDROM drive (with blank CD inside)
> 3. Copy humongous tar file to CD
> 4. Unmount CD
> 
> All operations are to take place possibly around 4am local time.