From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Jan 24 22:30:54 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 54AAE16A4CE for ; Sat, 24 Jan 2004 22:30:54 -0800 (PST) Received: from main.gmane.org (main.gmane.org [80.91.224.249]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7E85143D31 for ; Sat, 24 Jan 2004 22:30:51 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from freebsd-questions@m.gmane.org) Received: from list by main.gmane.org with local (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1AkdnG-0000rW-00 for ; Sun, 25 Jan 2004 07:30:50 +0100 X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from sea.gmane.org ([80.91.224.252]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1AkdnE-0000rO-00 for ; Sun, 25 Jan 2004 07:30:48 +0100 Received: from news by sea.gmane.org with local (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1AkdnE-0000Em-00 for ; Sun, 25 Jan 2004 07:30:48 +0100 From: Jesse Guardiani Date: Sun, 25 Jan 2004 01:30:44 -0500 Organization: WingNET Lines: 84 Message-ID: References: <200401232340.40104.bsd@elkins.org> <20040124181544.U56768@lorax.ldc.upenn.edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7Bit X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org User-Agent: KNode/0.7.2 X-Mail-Copies-To: never Sender: news Subject: Re: Why BSD? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list Reply-To: jesse@wingnet.net List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 25 Jan 2004 06:30:54 -0000 Jason M. Leonard wrote: > > On Sat, 24 Jan 2004, Jesse Guardiani wrote: > >> Jeff Elkins wrote: >> >> > This is not a troll. >> > >> > I've installed FreeBSD 5.2 on a spare SCSI drive and am compiling >> > kernels, updating ports, etc,etc. Thus far, other than some minor >> > hassles, it's equivilent to my Debian sid. >> > >> > I have to ask: Why FreeBSD rather than Linux? >> > >> > Honest question. >> >> For me, this question has been answered twice in different attempts to >> "give linux a try". I'm a Sys Admin, and we run FreeBSD almost >> exclusively at work. However, every new employee we hire walks into the >> building with an attitude that Linux is somehow better than FreeBSD >> because they're heard so much about it and haven't heard anything about >> FreeBSD. So, on two separate occasions, I decided to "give linux a try". >> Both ended miserably: >> > *snip* >> >> Occasion 2.) Got sick of Win 98 SE on my wife's computer, so I decided to >> "give >> Linux a second chance". >> >> This time I WANTED to go with Red Hat, since it's arguably the most >> popular Linux distro. However, one look at their new licensing made me >> change my mind in favor of Gentoo - The most BSD-like Linux distro. >> >> Maybe I was doing something wrong, but I couldn't find an automated >> install process. I had to read a text file and copy and paste install >> commands by HAND to get Gentoo installed. This was painful and tedious. >> It took probably 4 hours to install. Their motto is "freedom of choice" >> or something similar. Well where is my freedom to choose a quick >> install??? >> >> Pros: Very nice BSD-like portage system. Top notch. >> >> Cons: Terrible install process. Took forever. > > A couple of weeks ago I acquired a 4x50 slot Overland Neo tape library for > the purpose of backing up several 1T volumes that live on FreeBSD file > servers. Unfortunately I could not find backup server software for > FreeBSD that would allow me to back up volumes that span multiple tapes. [...] > Needless to say, I will be implementing a better--and no doubt > Linuxless--backup solution as soon as possible. Well, bacula will allow you to span multiple tapes. Be warned: Bacula+FreeBSD is in it's infancy, and you'll need 4.9-RELEASE or 5.2-RELEASE or higher in order to reliably use the multi-tape backup spanning functionality (a bug in the pthreads implementation of earlier versions of FreeBSD would cause data loss on the last 500k or so of tape). But this is what I'm currently implementing at work. We require nearly 1T of backup space too, and I intend to eek every last gig of space from my tapes. Again, bacula+FreeBSD is in it's infancy. I'm currently working with Kern, bacula's author, to get some issues worked out. And I have a few small patches that would probably make your life easier. But I definately see bacula as being a good backup solution for FreeBSD in the near future. Bacula also allows you to back up to disk. 160G large capacity ATA hard disks have a better cost/MB ratio than many tapes out there currently. Something to think about... http://www.bacula.org -- Jesse Guardiani, Systems Administrator WingNET Internet Services, P.O. Box 2605 // Cleveland, TN 37320-2605 423-559-LINK (v) 423-559-5145 (f) http://www.wingnet.net