[CentOS] Tape operation

Fajar Priyanto
2008-05-15T04:44:57Z

Hi all,
My only encounter with tape-backup was with Windows 2000. With it, when we
backup things using windows' backup tool, it will create a
'catalog', then
the catalog contains all the backup operations we do based on date. So, with
this we can "append" many backups into one tape. Next time we want to
restore
a backup, we can choose what date available in that particular tape.

I have zero experience with tape on Linux. I've been googling around and it
seems that the backup operation is very different.

For example:
- The tape is 400GB (LTO-3)
- The data is only 10GB

Some of the articles I read imply that 1 tape contains 1 backup-file only.
CMIIW. This is certainly not very efficient. The commands used are: mt,
either tar, cpio.

My question is:
1. How do I use that one tape of 400GB to store 39 archives of backup into it
in Linux?
2. Is tape backup seen by Linux just like any other filesystem? Can we mount
it and 'ls -l' it?
3. When to rewind, forward, why?
4. Wel will only backup data/files (not the entire filesystem), is it enough
to use the software provided by the tape vendor, or do I need another
software? Or just the mt command will do it?

Any URL, scripts, insight are very welcome.
Thank you very much.
--
Fajar Priyanto | Reg'd Linux User #327841 | Linux tutorial
http://linux2.arinet.org
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