[CVALE] Backup/Imaging

[Eric Davis]

Dennis Baker wrote:
> First,  RAID should never be confused for backup.  They serve two 
> similar but different purposes.  RAID is for fault tolerance.  In other 
> words if your hardware fails your system doesn't go down.  Backups are 
> for disaster recovery.  One such disaster Matt mentioned is operator 
> headspace,  in other words you the operater inadvertently screw 
> something up (none of us have ever done that have we?).  

I had a Linux Virtual Machine that I was done with and wanted to see 
what a  `rm -rf /` would do on it.  Pretty funny how I could cd around 
but had no ls :) (cd is built into the bash shell, which was running)

> That said... Matt what are you backing up that is that huge?  Maybe you 
> should triage your data.  Personally about the only thing I back up on a 
> regular basis are personal documents (resume,  financial stuff, etc), 
> family photos, and my web site which I have quite a bit of time/ energy 
> into.

My strategy is to keep my /home folder stored in Subversion at remote 
site.  This gives me at least 2 backups (plus another if you count the 
checkout of my /home on my laptop) but it also means I can 'move-in' to 
a new system quickly.

I also have a script to rsync my /home folder on each machine to a local 
server (running RAID 1).  That server also rsyncs every hour to a remote 
backup host (Strongspace).  This give me 4 backups (5 physical copies) 
across 3 remote sites, that are sync'ed hourly.  In addition I make some 
DVD backups 'whenever'.

> Beyond that,  games,  movies, MP3s, etc are never backed up since 
> they are replacable.  Almost all of that stuff for me fits on a single DVD.

I have about 60GB of this that I just put across multiple DVDs and it is 
stored on a central file server (RAID 1).  I can get by if these 
suddenly disappeared so I don't worry about backing them up more than that.

> How about partnering with someone else or even two other people.  Build 
> up a small backup system with enough drive space to store your backup 
> and rsync your system to it (do this locally the first time).  Then 
> install the system at another location and do a weekly rsync to the 
> backup system.  If you are truly paranoid you can have two backup 
> systems in two locations. 

This is like what I have now, just with myself and a backup host  My 
main backup server is a 650MHz Pentium3 with a RAID 1 of 200GB drives. 
It is fast enough for hourly backups, file serving, and managing my email.

You can also use a backup provider, they basically provide secure disk 
space for you.  I have used Strongspace [http://www.strongspace.com] for 
about a year now and highly recommend them.  Their $8 a month plan is 
enough to hold a backup for my three main systems (4GiB).  Another one I 
heard about is Rsync.net [http://www.rsync.net/]

If anyone wants I can post some of the rsync scripts I use.  If I ask I 
might even be able to get the ones I wrote for work (it involved backing 
up Windows and Linux servers with 30 days of backups (hard linked to 
save space)).


Eric Davis
-- I switch mail clients to much to have a signature