The data is currently stored in a 9TB RAID array, with many users having many files and directories. We'd like to back it up to five 2TB external hard drives, but since we only have one free USB port, this must be done sequentially. This means that once hard drive #2 is plugged in, #1 is unplugged, and we won't know what was originally on hard drive #1 unless the software remembers it.
One solution would be to assign every file or directory to a hard drive beforehand, and then follow through with this as they are connected. Is there a straightforward way to do this?
Best Answer
Most commercial backup-software packages have support for a "removable media" option, which is what you're talking about here. It'll do a backup, prompt for operator assistance (swap drives) and continue the backup. These packages maintain a state database to keep track of which data is stored on what media, so you don't have to.
If you're in UNIX land, ye olde
tarhas media management options. Spanning big-big data across multiple tapes is kind of what it was built for.If you're using XFS on Unix,
xfsdumphas media-management in it as well, above and beyond what tar can do.