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- Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun.admin
- Path: sparky!uunet!ukma!darwin.sura.net!sgiblab!nec-gw!netkeeper!vivaldi!cornell
- From: cornell@inoc.dl.nec.com (Cornell Kinderknecht)
- Subject: Re: BudTool
- Message-ID: <cornell.715197826@vivaldi>
- Sender: news@inoc.dl.nec.com (-- cjk --)
- Nntp-Posting-Host: vivaldi.inoc.dl.nec.com
- Reply-To: cornell@syl.dl.nec.com
- Organization: NEC USA, Corporate Network Administration Division (Dallas, TX)
- References: <1992Aug24.091140.3086@unibi.uni-bielefeld.de> <1992Aug24.223449.17740@microunity.com> <1992Aug25.104148.12552@unibi.uni-bielefeld.de> <1992Aug26.135035.20873@sadtler.com>
- Date: Sun, 30 Aug 1992 18:03:46 GMT
- Lines: 69
-
- I'll jump in too with some comments on BudTool. These are all my
- own comments and reflect my experience with the product.
-
- From the products I've read about or tested or watched in action,
- BudTool seemed to be the best for our needs and the most flexible.
- I've found that using it has proven that that is true. I'd still
- purchase it if I had to choose again. The best parts are that it
- uses standard dump, cpio, tar for backing up and that most things
- are easily configurable so you can define your own backup commands
- for machines that might not support the standard formats.
-
- I wouldn't claim it as the most wonderful product in the world that
- ever existed or could exist but it is better than other choices.
-
- I got one of the 10-tape jukeboxes (random access) with a 5Gb tape
- drive in it. It faithfully does my backups around the network.
- I've set up a pretty complex schedule of backing up our machines and
- am still adjusting it to get it to a more optimum schedule.
-
- Some things that I don't like follow. Hopefully this won't look
- like I have a negative impression of the product. I think that it's
- pretty good. These are just the areas I'd like to see improvement.
-
- 1) "Secure Retrieval" is very picky about which X-Server it can run
- on. So, in most cases in my setup, when users want to restore their
- own files, they can't because of this limitation.
-
- 2) No non-bitmapped GUI. This really stinks. I can't manage my
- backups from home over a regular dial-in connection when things need
- attention or changed. Our large servers only have vt100 sitting on
- them so when I'm working on the server, I have to leave and go to a
- machine where I can run X. If you've had a major disk problem and
- the machines that can run X depend on the server to operate, well,
- then you can't use Budtool for restores because you don't have X.
- But, since the tapes use standard dump, that's just an
- inconvenience. I've asked a few times about getting a command line
- and/or curses GUI. When I asked in fall 1991, I was told that it
- was being worked on. When I asked about a month ago, I was told
- that it was being worked on.
-
- 3) I'd like a more robust method for expiring entries in the online
- database. You have quite a bit of control over how many occurences
- of files are "remembered" in the database. But, I'd like to also be
- able to say something like "expire any entries that are older than
- four months old" or something like that. So far, I haven't found
- any way to expire on an "age" basis.
-
- 4) I've had my history database get corrupted for unknown reasons a
- few times with no hopes of getting it back (strange for a tool that
- backup is it's game).
-
- 5) I don't think that the manual is arranged in a coherent manual.
- When I want to find something specific, I have to really hunt and
- flip through several places that just MIGHT have what I'm looking
- for. Many times, I know I've seen it mentioned in the manual but
- where it was at, I just don't know. I think part of the appendices
- describing files and file formats is pretty good.
-
-
- I've had pretty good luck the few times I've emailed their support
- address. Usually, I've arrived at a workaround or solution in the
- couple of days lag time between when I sent the request and I
- received a reply.
-
- --- Cornell
- | Cornell Kinderknecht | Email: cornell@syl.dl.nec.com |
- | CSTC/CNAD | UUCP: uunet!necbsd!cornell |
- | NEC Systems Lab./NEC USA | Phone: 214-518-3509 |
- | Irving, TX (Dallas) | Fax: 214-518-3552 |
-