UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users

Hi

I'm trying to work out the best method for creating a backup under SCO OpenServer. I would like to perform unattended backups to tape of various file systems, possibly using a script etc.

So far I've looked at the Backup Manager that comes with SCO and that cannot perform unattended backups. I will also need to span multiple tapes, so I just need the backup to start from CRON and then when it reaches the end of the tape it will prompt to change the tape and continue with the backup.

I have seen a cpio command that will span multiple multiple media but it then prompts for the next tape and you need to type your response to continue. But if I run this from CRON I don't know how to get the prompt onto the screen to allow the operator to continue. Below is an example of the command just spanning across floppy disks.

You can create a multivolume archive of the entire filesystem on floppies using the -O option of cpio:

find / -depth -print | cpio -ovcBK 1200 -O /dev/rfd096ds15

Any ideas??

Thanks in advance

You seem to be asking to do confilcting things...

automated, multi-volume backup with cpio and do it in cron job

...the problem is that if you were to redirect output of cpio...

find / -depth -print | cpio -ovcBK 1200 -O /dev/rfd096ds15 > /dev/console 2>&1

...if you run this from cron, you will not have a controlling tty
and cpio will not be "reading" from the tty you are at.

I might suggest using some other backup utility. Take a look at...
http://www.backupcentral.com/software-backup.html

...you might find somthing that suits you here.

Just for info.. I liked 'unix Backup & Recovery' from Oreilly is a good book..

peterh