[Gllug] the tao of backups...

[Sean Burlington]

John Hearns wrote:
> 
> Adam Bower wrote:
> 
> 
>>On Sat, Sep 21, 2002 at 02:45:54PM +0100, Stig Brautaset wrote:
>>
>>>http://taobackup.com/
>>
>>I know i will regret saying this but point no.1 saying backup everything is
>>plain madness, all i backup is /home and /etc/ and my latest Debian kernel
>>package and a list of the debian packages i have installed. To be honest I
>>think that is also a little over the top.
>>
>>Thing is also with backups you have to be careful if you backup everything as
>>of course if you are hacked and have to restore you may end up just
>>reinstalling the trojans.
> 
> 
> Very true.
> 
> However, backups are not just made in case of hacking - they are also made
> for disaster recovery.
> In a commercial environment, you should be sure that you can bring back your
> web and file servers from a complete hardware crash  - or even theft of
> equipment.
> 
> It is a good idea to brainstorm on this with your colleagues,
> and practise a rebuild/restore of your server on similar hardware.
> Your bosses will be reassured when you can answer them truthfully, and give
> a real estimate of how long a restore will take.
> 

but for small organisations the downtime caused by a complete rebuild 
may be bearable as long as the data can be restored

they may not be able to afford the cost of full backups and practise 
restores

the disaster recovery 'plan' is probably 'work from home until we sort 
something out'.

Paranoia can be usefull - it can also be crippling

there is a nice bit in 'All Quiet on the Western Front' (i think) where 
the verteran soldier explain to the newbies that if the bombs falling 
are shrapnel you are better off standing, if they are explosives you 
should lie down - but since you can't tell in advance you may as well 
carry on what you were doing.

-- 

Sean



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