Re: VMS backup to NFS shares

From: Andrew Balaam (abalaam_at_yahoo.co.uk)
Date: 06/30/03 

Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2003 05:20:51 GMT

Multinet stores the FDL info in a hidden file (ie, one starting with a .)
on an NFS server by default. So when the file is viewed from VMS, the
file attributes are correct.

If you are doing and image followed by daily and weekly incremental
backups, you will have to work out some method of restoring the image
backup (if it is the system disk).

Backup savesets seem to compress quite well using gzip on the linux box.
I went through an exercise recently, reading all our older project
archives that were stored on Exabyte (8mm) tapes. I mounted the tapes
non-foreign and copied all the savesets off the tapes to an NFS served
area on a Linux box. There was at the end, about 30GB of data. I gzipped
all the savesets, and removed all the hidden FDL files (the contents of
these files were all identical) and got all the data on to 2 DVD-Rs. To
read a saveset, I just copy one off the DVD into an area readable by my
VAX over NFS, gunzip it, create the hidden FDL file and then use backup
on the VAX.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Original Message <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

On 30/06/03, 03:24:26, jason.mccormick@lexi.com (Jason McCormick) wrote
regarding VMS backup to NFS shares:

> I was hoping that a VMS guru could answer a question for me. I have a
> VAXStation 4000 90A and I'm attempting to get a usable backup solution
> for it. The tape unit I've been using on it requires a data stream
> speed that the VAX simply can't keep pushing out to the unit and it's
> casuing physical damage. I have Multinet and I was looking at
> mounting a remote NFS share to the VAX and using the backup command to
> create savesets on the remote NFS server and then put those savesets
> to tape on the remote server.

> I ran this idea past someone who's more familiar with VMS and they
> expressed concern that this plan may not work whenever you attempt to
> restore files from the savesets as "information specific to VMS may be
> lost" but couldn't be clear to me what information that might be. I
> know that you can use backup to create savesets on-disk that function
> identical to those on tape so I'm curious as to if there's any gotchas
> that might be associated with creating backups on a remote NFS share
> disk. The remote computer serving NFS would be Linux or Solaris. If
> anyone could share insight on this plan, I'd be most grateful.

> -- Jason McCormick

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