| Backup & Recovery | 
| Author: W. Curtis Preston
Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Category: Book
List Price: $49.99
Buy New: $28.29
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Avg. Customer Rating:   (10 reviews)
Sales Rank: 58822
Format: Illustrated
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 760
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.2
Dimensions (in): 9 x 7 x 1.4
ISBN: 0596102461
Dewey Decimal Number: 005
EAN: 9780596102463
ASIN: 0596102461
Publication Date: January 3, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
| Showing reviews 6-10 of 10 | | « PREV | | |
 An excellent reference May 3, 2007
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
In the realm of important things in the world of computers are good backups and equally important is the ability to properly restore those backups. My initial attraction to this book had to do with it being tapered toward open system solutions. I am an avid user of Linux and open-source software, so I was interesting in learning about the free tools that the author writes about.
The author starts out by discussing "The Philosophy of Backup" which covers why backups are so important and how you to find a solution that both meets your needs and your budget. Chapter two goes over what to backup, how often and at what levels. It also discussed what types of disaster to be prepared for, automation, storage, testing and things to look out for on various OS's.
Chapters 3-7 cover open-source backup utilities. In chapter three the author discusses and provides examples of how to use basic utilities such as dump, cpio, tar and dd for Unix systems, ntbackup and System Restore for the Window's crowd, ditto for Mac, and the GNU versions of tar, cpio, and rsync. Chapter's 4-6 discuss Amanda, BackupPC and Bacula. Chapter seven digs into near-continuous data protection and how the open-source community is achieving this, and what tools to use.
By chapter 8 and 9 the author is discussing commercial backup solutions. This section is different from the last in that it doesn't really discuss specific tools and how to use them, but rather it discusses the features of commercial products. This section also covers the various types of backup hardware on the market in an effort to help the reader decide what media best meets their needs.
Chapters 10-14 covers "Bare-Metal Recovery". The author takes you through the process of a bare-metal recovery with Solaris, Linux, Windows, HP-UX, AIX, and Mac OS X.
By chapters 15-22 the author has moved on to database backups and takes you through the various solutions for Oracle, Sybase, IBM DB2, SQL Server, Exchange, PostegreSQL, and MySQL. Finally the author wraps up the book with VMware server backup solutions and discussing data protection.
CONCLUSION
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I found this book to be a very interesting read. I especially enjoyed the open-source, bare-metal recovery, and database sections. The author does an excellent job of taking the reader through all of the steps including example syntax needed to perform a backup and restore with the various tools discussed. Another high point is that the author includes current tools and techniques. This book holds lots of real world wisdom and I would recommend it to any system administrator, developer, or user who is interested in protecting their data.
These are basic references any serious computer collection needs. April 10, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
W. Curtis Preston's BACKUP & RECOVERY offers solid hands-on keys to backing up data and recovering from a systems crash - all without using commercial software. From Linux and Windows and Mac OS systems, it surveys backup tools, open-source resources, criteria for evaluating systems and operations, and lessons and tricks to overcome common obstacles, making it a system administrator's top desk reference as well as a pick for libraries catering to this audience. These are basic references any serious computer collection needs.
Backup, backup, backup! March 23, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Backup and Recovery
If you ever are faced with a technical problem in your IT career, turn to O'Reilly publications and pick a book on the topic. The cover of this book fully describes its content: Inexpensive Backup Solutions for Open Systems.
I was recently faced with the task of backing up MySQL databases, along with setting up reliable backup tools on client's Linux server and Windows workstations. The book helped me find all the answers; it's filled with good and practical information and is supplemented with a "healthy doze" of real life examples and anecdotes.
A good number of backup tools are discussed along with configuration examples and automation procedures. Oracle, HP-UX, Windows, Linux... All you need is here.
Relevant information for backup and recovery February 18, 2007
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
The book is pretty well rounded and has overviews of different backup and recovery practices in addition to diving into the nuts and bolts of specific methods. Overall it is excellently written.
This book has an immediate payback January 19, 2007
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
This version updates the 7 year old predecessor. The previous book was very good and widely respected in the UNIX and Linux community. Now Preston has expanded the coverage to include windows and MacIntosh OS-X - of interest to many enterprises with heterogenious environments.
For me the updated Linux/Unix coverage was very welcome. The well organized and accessible content had immediate application myself and a client. Beyond accessibility there is also enough depth to out of trouble and with lots of references points you to sources for details beyond the context of the book.
A great book on backup made even better.
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