backing up Statice databases

[rshapiro@arris.com (Richard Shapiro)]

According to the documentation, there are only two ways to back up
Statice dbs: (1) perform a real backup using one of several obsolete
(and very limited capacity) tape formats or (2) dump the dbs as ascii
files. Neither of these seem like very attractive options. Are there,
by any chance, other unpublicised forms of backup? In particular, it
would be useful if the regular Statice backup facility could be made
to work on some modern, fast, high capacity medium (DAT, for
instance); or if it could quickly generate relatively small binary
files on a Unix system, which could then be backed up in the usual
Unix fashion. Ascii dumps take far too long to generate and reload,
and produce huge files; and it seems silly at best to be using ancient
(and slow) 40 MB cart tape formats.  It seems especially silly to have
to go out and buy a drive of this sort in 1991.

Any suggestions? Please reply by email to rshapiro@arris.com. 

Thanks --

rs