[Gllug] Remote backups

[John Edwards]

On Wed, Jul 24, 2002 at 06:50:57PM +0100, Jim Bailey wrote:
> On Wed, Jul 24, 2002 at 09:59:17AM +0200, John Hearns wrote:
>> 
>> But one thing which worries me is backups. The sort of scenario you are
>> describing is where small offices run without the services of a
>> Unix/Linux sysadmin. As a fully paid up member of 't Trade Union I can
>> only say this is folly (Smile. I'm joking).
> 
> I don't think that having an admin on site is an absolute necessity
> anymore.  If these are doctors surgeries community clinics, dentists
> etc.  Then ADSL is your friend almost all services including ssh for
> remote admin could run on or through a gateway server running mail, DNS,
> web services on a dual homed host.  It could also act as a firewall for
> windows and *nix clients behind it.
> 
> The administration would be done remotely with these various entities
> sharing the cost of a sys admin between them.  Of course there will be
> times when a techie is needed on site but mostly these could be
> scheduled.

Seperate the firewall from the main server and you've got a system that 
my company has placed into quite a few small businesses for a monthly 
rental for hardware and support.

>> But seriously, you do need to think about backups.
>> I remember posting to the GLLUG list a few months ago about a backup
>> utility which backed up to writeable CDs, and also made disaster
>> recovery CDs. I reckon this should be included with the distribution.
>> Its no use populating your nice database if it ain't backed up.
> 
> I have been wondering of the practicality of using an ADSL connection to
> do offsite backups by sharing backup services between groups of SOHO
> users such as the groups mentioned above.  I figure that after the
> intial full backup the following incremental backups particularly if
> done in the small hours would be practical.  Anybody care to show me the
> stupidity and impracticality of my suggestion?
> 
> Peace Jim

For offsite machines without a removal backup I've found that using rsync 
over ssh works quite well. Theoretical maximium is 900MB/hour, but you'll 
can probably get about half that if it's lots of small files. 

But unless you trust both machines and use ssh-agent you are required to 
type in a password/passphrase for each new ssh connection so it's not very 
easy to stick into a cron script.

Other alternatives could be using a VPN and something like amanda.


ps. Is it me or has the quality of tape drives fallen through the floor 
over the past few years. I've had serious problems with HP and Seagate 
DDS3 and DDS4 drives which are only a few months old, where as older DDS2 
models are still running after many years.


-- 
#------------------------------------------------------------#
|      John Edwards    Email: John.Edwards at uk.com            |
|                                                            |
|     "Security vulnerabilities are here to stay."           |
|   Scott Culp, Manager, Microsoft Security Response Center  |
#------------------------------------------------------------#

-- 
Gllug mailing list  -  Gllug at linux.co.uk
http://list.ftech.net/mailman/listinfo/gllug