On 2020-10-12 14:27, mick crane wrote:
might I ask a favour for information on accepted wisdom for this stuff ?
I being a home user have pfsense on old lenovo between ISP router and
switch to PCs
another old buster lenovo doing email
another Buster PC I do bits of programming on.
Windows PC I play poker on and some games.
My approach to backup has been to copy files I want to keep to external
HDs and other disks when I remember. If something goes wrong so long as
I remember what the config files do it's not such a big deal to start
again.
I suppose I should try to make it more formal
Tips for understood accepted wisdom appreciated, like is it better if
want to use a windows program have this Virtualization or reboot and
change boot order or just have it on another PC. And also practical
method for backup hardware as consumer hardware only seem to have room
for 2 disks at most.
mick
I did the "old PC firewall" for many years with IPCop. It had a text
console UI and I could login via SSH and do Linux things. Then I added
a consumer AP. It had a web UI. Then I changed the old PC to a
consumer firewall/ VPN router and installed another at a remote site.
Again, web UI's. Keeping the configuration settings of only a few
network devices in sync, each with its own UI, was problematic at best.
Finally, I discovered UniFi, and its "software defined networking". I
have one "controller" (free as in beer) running on a virtual host
(linode.com) that provides centralized command and control via a web UI
for one or more devices organized into one or more networks. Even with
only one security gateway and one AP in my home, the administration
savings is noticeable and welcome:
https://unifi-network.ui.com/
Backups are a subset of disaster planning, preparedness, recovery, etc..
There seems to be two extremes:
1. A packaged solution -- amanda, borg backup, bacula, etc.. These
tools are very good from a pragmatic standpoint.
2. Home-grown solutions, starting with basic tools tar(1), gzip(1),
rsync(1), then wrapped with shell scripts, then put into programs/
suites, etc.. Code weenies can go this route, as I did, but I'm not so
sure it's a good idea.
Software for a specific platform runs the best when the platform is real
hardware, rather then virtualization or emulation. Rather than dual- or
multi-boot several operating systems on one drive, I put trayless racks
in my computers, put each OS on a separate drive, and mix and match as
desired.
If you want a lot of drives in one build-your-own computer, look at full
tower cases. Alternatively, look at storage server products with
multiple drive bays/ racks.
David
