Anyone here use Bacular or Amanda with a tape library?

[somename]

Just trying to figure out an efficient and manageable set up for my home network. I have about 10 machines mostly running Windows(2 server 2012, 1 Solaris, 7 Win 10). I used to run a back up server with backup exec, but a couple of machine failures led to a temporary fix dumping built in windows back ups into ZFS share and became permanent fix so far.

It works well enough, but I want to involve tape backups again since I got my hand on TL4000 dual LTO4 library. And I wouldn't mind having a central backup server again. But I no longer have access to backup exec license, and commercial backup softwares are just to costly for home use. Bacula or Amanda seem like either could work for my purpose, but some first hand experience would be appreciated.

Also, this is another topic altogether, but I'm thinking about dumping Solaris since it'll be discontinued soon. I guess Illumos is a logical replacement, but I've been kinda tempted to use one of BSD flavors. Is any better than the others, especially for serving CIFS shares? Thanks a lot.

 

[drescherjm]

At work I have used bacula (on gentoo linux) with a 2 drive 24 slot tape library for 11 years now. I have over 200 LTO2 tapes in use. Not many problems or intervention needed. We have used bacula since 1999.


I hope to replace the LTO changer with a single drive LTO6 drive sometime this year. I would again go for a changer but I don't have the budget for a $4000+ item.