Newsgroups: comp.unix.large
Subject: Re: Archiving on large systems
From: russell@ccu1.aukuni.ac.nz (Russell Fulton;ccc032u)
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 1992 22:00:57 GMT
Organization: University of Auckland, New Zealand.

CSYSPCN@mvs.oac.ucla.edu (CSYSPCN) writes:

>What are you using for archiving, and are you happy with it?

What do you mean by archiving?

To *me* archiving means saving files in some system where I can be
confident that they will be looked after for as long as I have asked
them to be. Once I have 'archived' the file I should be able to delete
the file from my account. It also implies that I should be able to get
the file back with a minimum of fuss at anytime. Although there may be
a delay before the file appears. You need to be able to specify how long
the file is to be kept.

We are relatively new to unix. (We moved from an IBM VM system 18months
ago.) On the IBM we had a home grown archive system that worked very
well, by the time we moved off the IBM we had nearly 100,000 files
in the archive. The physical archive was stored on 150 reels of 1/2"
tape, two copies of every file stored on different tapes.

Since moving to Unix we have been activly looking for a system to
perform archiving under unix. Sofar we have examined several system
but all of them turned out to be backup system rather than archive
systems (for example 'Legato Networker'.) I'm not knocking these
system, if you want a backup system then there are some great
products out there. The crucial thing that all these systems lack that
make them unsuitable for archiving is that you can't give a command
'take this file and look after it for 5 years' then immediately delete
the file.

Anyway we have now given up looking and are starting to implement our own.
Don't hold your breath though! It will be quite a while before anything
appears. The problem is that we are very short of staff and I will end
up doing this as well as my other two full time jobs ;-(

Here are some comments about the system in the order that I think of them.

1/ It will be based on a client/server model. Server running on a UNIX
  system. Clients will be Unix, PC, Mac, VMS implemented in that order.
2/ Use TCP/IP a protocol based on ftp. We intend to  hack existing ftp
   clients on PCs and Macs as a first shot at implementing clients 
   for those platforms.
3/ the system will use a commercial indexed file system to maitain
   a database of information about files and users of the archive.
   (we will try to write this so as it make it easy to use some other
   database software -- it is likely that we will have a separate 
   daemon to look after the database which should localise the code
   nicely.)
4/ Security will be similar to unix password system with the possibility
   of having trusted hosts where user athentification is not required.
5/ full directory structures (from the users home directory for  Unix
   and VMS or from root for PCs and macs) will be saved.
6/ initial implementation will archive to a large disk area. Then
   we will implement the mechanisms to save files on tape. We have
   not finally settled what media we will use but are leaning
   towards dat because of its fast random access should speed retrieval.
7/ When fully operational (i.e. when we get the tape stuff implemented)
   the system will always maintain two copies of all files.
8/ We will be happy to distribute this software under a GNU type license.
9/ expected time frame -- early next year. (assuming the The good Lord 
   willing, creek don't rise,.... ;-)
10/ Afterthought, It will allow you to keep multiple versions of a file
    a la VMS. (you can specify how many generations to keep for a given
    file.)
 
Anybody out there got any comments suggestions?

Cheers, Russell.
-- 
Russell Fulton, Computer Center, University of Auckland, New Zealand.
<rj_fulton@aukuni.ac.nz>
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