From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Jan 24 23:18:40 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 3F1A016A4CE for ; Sat, 24 Jan 2004 23:18:40 -0800 (PST) Received: from lorax.ldc.upenn.edu (lorax.ldc.upenn.edu [158.130.16.184]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7086243D41 for ; Sat, 24 Jan 2004 23:18:36 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from fuzz@ldc.upenn.edu) Received: by lorax.ldc.upenn.edu (Postfix, from userid 32822) id EE5E333C32; Sun, 25 Jan 2004 02:18:35 -0500 (EST) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by lorax.ldc.upenn.edu (Postfix) with ESMTP id E29B233C31 for ; Sun, 25 Jan 2004 02:18:35 -0500 (EST) Date: Sun, 25 Jan 2004 02:18:35 -0500 (EST) From: "Jason M. Leonard" To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <20040125015802.D57957@lorax.ldc.upenn.edu> References: <200401232340.40104.bsd@elkins.org> <20040124181544.U56768@lorax.ldc.upenn.edu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Subject: Re: Why BSD? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 25 Jan 2004 07:18:40 -0000 On Sun, 25 Jan 2004, Jesse Guardiani wrote: > 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 Thanks. I have thought about Bacula, actually. The problem is this: "There is no concept of a Pool of backup devices (i.e. if device /dev/nst0 is busy, use /dev/nst1, ...)." I have twenty 1T volumes spread out over four FreeBSD file servers; I have 200 110G SDLT1 (no compression for me because most of my data is audio) tapes in a library with two SDLT1 drives. The library supports up to 16 drives, and I hope to get at least a couple more in there this year. I have to be able to write to multiple devices simultaneously. :Fuzz