[rescue] Tape storage, previously: Corrupted list messages

[Jonathan Patschke]

On Thu, 30 Sep 2021, John Floren wrote:

>> Backups stream over the VPN periodically,
>> eventually draining to tape when I remember to turn the library on.
>
> Interested to know what hardware/software you're using for tape
> backups. I'd like to start doing local copies in addition to my
> existing daily pushes to Backblaze.

I can't recommend the library (A SAS-connected Dell PowerVault 124T)
because it's a noisy[0] pile of junk with an almost useless mailslot
implementation.  But it was extremely cheap, so I couldn't resist.
There are definitely nicer 2U tape drives; the IBM ones tend to go cheap
second-hand for some reason.

The software is pretty simple.  Periodic rsync sends from the service
boxes to dedicated ZFS datasets on a fileserver, periodic zfs snapshots
on the fileserver using a zfs snapshot rotation script I wrote probably
10 years ago, a cron job to look for the library, a dumb little script
to send the snapshots to files, GNU tar to batch up the job, lpr to send
the barcode list and manifest to the printer, and Thomas Maier-Komor's
excellent 'mbuffer' program to keep the tape drive fed.

The overall feel is like rsnapshot, only lazier.

I really wanted to like Restic as a backup tool, since I'd heard such
good things about it, but I just couldn't figure out how to make it fit
a similar workflow.  Learning Bacula's on my to-do list, so maybe it'll
replace my precarious stack of hacks someday.


[0] Lots of lightweight plastic gears, a fixed grabber with two
     chattering tape carousels, and stepper motors that could double as
     alarm buzzers.  At least replacing the fans cut the noise level by
     enough to be tolerable.
-- 
Jonathan Patschke
Austin, TX
USA