[Gllug] Advice on backup options

[Mike Brodbelt]

On Wed, 2004-07-07 at 16:11, Rev Simon Rumble wrote:
> This one time, at band camp, Richard Huxton wrote:
> 
> > If they can't afford a tape-drive, is there any possibility they could 
> > afford to recover from a fire?
> 
> Certainly.  That's what insurance is for.

Have they got DR, or just insurance on the hardware? Replacing the kit
is one thing, but could they contine in business at all if they
irretrievably lost all their data? If the answer is no, they might be
well advised to have a budget of > 300ukp for a backup solution...

> "Swap" brings with it the risk that all the copies of data are in one
> place at the same time, which if you're going to the expense of buying
> two defeats the purpose.
> 
> I was thinking more this kind of schedule (R=remote L=local):
>     R  L
> Mon 12
> Tue 1  2
> Wed 21
> Thu 2  1
> Fri 12
> 
> In other words, the backup controller brings a drive in on Monday,
> Wednesday and Friday and takes one home on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
> Backups occur on Tuesday and Thursday mornings.  Thoughts?

The backup controller's house burns down on Thursday night. Game over.

> Yes they will have to compromise...  The problem with archiving
> systems is that they rely on end-users understanding the difference
> and acting appropriately.  By way of example, I found a user last week
> had been storing files for her current project on a local drive
> because the storage space on the server is low.

You need some kind of incremental solution. You need offsite storage.
Despite how cheap IDE disks are, I still think that tape is the only
sensible option. Using a NAS box as a secondary when you have cash to
burn is fine, but tape is easy to put in a safe, doesn't lose data when
you drop it on the floor, and a whole host of other things.

If you're concerned about cost get a DDS drive - they can be had cheaply
now. 25 quid from ebay if you're really scraping the barrel:-

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=16164&item=5106928169&rd=1

There's also a DDS4 (24 Gb native) drive for 180ukp, and some pretty
reasonably priced DLT drives.

For software, I still think Amanda is the best system I've ever used,
and it's free.

These things are often cost sensitive, especially where there is no
visible benefit day to day, as with a backup solution. Nevertheless,
there is such a thing as false economy. If total data loss would kill
the business, then they need to take it seriously, and prioritise
accordingly.

HTH,

Mike.

-- 
Gllug mailing list  -  Gllug at gllug.org.uk
http://lists.gllug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/gllug