Rating: 
Summary: Defininetely the best backup book I've read
Review: I believe that the most important advantage of this book is that it addresses strategic issues first and thus will remain valuable for many years to come.Secondly, it focuses on the basics: - talks about choices and questions one should think about before implementing anything. - explains how to 'sell' backup (actually restore) to management - reminds us that restoration is THE most important objective Finally, it was fun reading and is full of experience and cases. All in all, this is one book I would not like my competitors to have.
Rating:
Summary: A Must-have!
Review: I had just bought this book and had thumbed through the chapters a little and read about the first two chapters. One of my systems experienced a hard crash one night and I could not get the Oracle database to come back up. Knowing basically nothing about Oracle and unable to contact the DBA or the Support people, I remembered this book had a chapter on Oracle recovery. Needless to say, it worked. If someone like myself who had never worked with Oracle before was able to use this book to easily recover a database, anyone can. The author explains about native backup utilities, databases, structures, etc on an easily understandable level. He constantly adds notes from his experiences that add enormous value to the test. Buy this Book!
Rating: 
Summary: Really good book, but definitely not perfect
Review: I wish I had had this book available when I began learning UNIX system administration. The book is full of useful examples and really good advice. His coverage of native UNIX backup tools is extremely good. The discussions of bare metal recovery are by themselves worth the cost of the book. It's not a perfect book, however. I found the book to be too chatty, with too many personal anecdotes that just distract from the message. More importantly, the author fails to go into any depth comparing the commercial backup packages that are available for UNIX systems and relational databases. He explains ways to evaluate the various packages, which is valuable, but some actual commentary and opinion would have been most welcome.
Rating:
Summary: This is "The" Bible of Backup and Recovery
Review: I wish I had this book available many years ago. I read the chapters almost everyday since I baught it (this one is one of the best books i baught). If you are dealing with Backup and recovery on Unix, High availability etc. This is the book you want. The book has lots of humourus stories about his encounters with backup and restore senarios. I liked the Preface page. The book is all filled with the "right" information you need. Great book ! Great value for money !
Rating:
Summary: Finally, an definitive book on an unpleasant subject
Review: I worked with Curtis at a previous employer of mine. You don't begin to truly understand the complete scope of backups and all the issues involved unless you're a certified genius (which he is), and you live, eat, breathe, and drink backups day-in and day-out (which he does). Most admins hate to even think about backups (it's the most menial and unpleasant of all admin tasks), but we also recognize that they're necessary. Finally we have a book from a true expert that can help us minimize the effluent that we have to deal with, and spend more of our time doing the things we really like.
Rating:
Summary: This is THE backup book !
Review: If you're a sysadmin or DBA you must read it ! OK, you think you know enough about backups. WRONG ! Read it and you will change your mind. Gives you a real world picture of backups, when, why and how to the it correctly. Covers several Unix flavors and also the most used Databases. The scripts are very good and very usefull. A "must have" book !
Rating: 
Summary: It's the book I wish I had seven years ago!
Review: If you've got data to back up and recover, this book has something for you. Whether you're a big shop with a budget, or a little shop with NO budget -- there's a tool in here for you. I've tried to cover every area & recovery (hot & cold); bare-metal system recoveries for SunOS/Solaris, HP-UX, AIX, IRIX, TRUE64 & LINUX; free utilities (from GNU tar to AMANDA); selecting a commercial backup software package; and selecting and using backup hardware. It also includes a CD with Informix, Oracle, and Sybase recovery procedures, as well as the free backup utilities discussed in the book. Like I said, it's the book I wish I had when I got started in this business.
Rating:
Summary: Down-to-earth unix backup strategies and tools
Review: This book provides good guidelines and tools/scripts for backup/recory of most types of unix systems. Highly recommended for those who earn their living by dependable backups.
Rating:
Summary: The Computer Backup Book
Review: This is *THE* Computer System backup book. It contains all the basics of why you want to backup computer systems, plus many of the real world experience details. It is written from a Unix perspective, but is still applicable to Windows and other non-Unix environments. I've been using this book as a general guide for several years now. It was a book I watched work it's way through the O'Reilly system from first announcement to general release. I bought it when it first came out. I have not been disappointed in it. Many people think of computer system backups as a dry old musty topic of interest to nobody in particular. But 9/11 showed how important good disaster recovery planning and procedures could be to a business. Some of the specifics are now a little out of date, but not by leaps and bounds. It is still very good for its core reason for being - Backups. It is very much less out of date than other computer books on the market today. I have been dealing with large-scale computer system backups and disaster recovery for large employers for years... and I still consult this book regularly to make sure have not missed anything important. It covers all the topics you need.
Rating:
Summary: The Computer Backup Book
Review: This is *THE* Computer System backup book. It contains all the basics of why you want to backup computer systems, plus many of the real world experience details. It is written from a Unix perspective, but is still applicable to Windows and other non-Unix environments. I've been using this book as a general guide for several years now. It was a book I watched work it's way through the O'Reilly system from first announcement to general release. I bought it when it first came out. I have not been disappointed in it. Many people think of computer system backups as a dry old musty topic of interest to nobody in particular. But 9/11 showed how important good disaster recovery planning and procedures could be to a business. Some of the specifics are now a little out of date, but not by leaps and bounds. It is still very good for its core reason for being - Backups. It is very much less out of date than other computer books on the market today. I have been dealing with large-scale computer system backups and disaster recovery for large employers for years... and I still consult this book regularly to make sure have not missed anything important. It covers all the topics you need.
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