On 12/17/2010 08:10 AM, Mark Woodward wrote: > While I've got some free time on my hands, I decided to start work on a > project. At its core, it is very much like a standard backup system. > What makes it different from a regular backup is what you do with the > data retrieved after the backup. I know it is a long shot or even a > fools errand to start anything so pedantic and well traveled, but there > is a specific need that I believe has been identified, but requires > "backup" done in a specific manner. Anyway, who knows? I'm already > testing and using some of the core pieces and I have to say, I like it. > > My target OS are Windows, MacOS, and Linux. It will run on desktops, > servers, and even some of these little NAS boxes that run Linux. > > My question for you guys is what do you *want* in a backup. We've all > used these feature laden things that are out there, 99% of which is > pointless. What are "must haves?" What is something you've wanted but > can't find? What are features that are most pointless and why?
I've talked about my backup methodology, and I don't think it's common or standard, but I'll throw it out again so you can laugh heartily at it. I try to only back up data and config files, not binaries. All bin directories (except under /usr/local) are excluded. My theory (which has been put to practice) is that I can restore the OS through regular means, upgrade packages as needed, then restore my data, mail, scripts, websites, etc. It also gives me the ability to install a newer version, restore all of my data and most of my configs, doing a diff to bring them up to the newer versions as needed (which I've done). I do not back up my MythTV video files at all, which did actually bite me once, but I worked my way through denial, anger, recovery. The upshot is the .tgz backup for my server is about 14GB right now. That gets copied to an external USB hard drive that is normally unplugged from both power and data. I also bought a 16GB thumb drive to bring to work as an offsite backup (but I encrypt that). Image backups can be nice and fast and simple, but it means your backup media has to be several times the storage of your entire system (for multiple backups), you only have the option of getting back to where you were, and you have to trust that it was a real snapshot with all files synchronized, With regards to not letting Tarzan and Jane see each others' files, I would be careful of trying to solve that one, because it forces you to not only have intimate details of the filesystem involved, but what authentication system the backed up system was using, etc. _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
