Tracy R Reed wrote:
George Georgalis wrote:
What are people doing for off site backup?
>
For the last year and a half I have been
backing up to DVD. I can get 4.7G native per disk. I have around 20G of
data that I back up after compression so that needs 6 disks. Quality
Memorex DVD+RW disks cost $49.98
for a 50 pack so right around $1/disk so each backup requires $6 in
media and the media is theoretically reusable up to 1000 times.
Only problem is it takes a number of hours and 6
disk changes to do a full backup this way.
If, by full backup, you mean OS+data, is that really necessary for a
home LAN? Since I tend to upgrade on about the same cycle as Fedora,
re-installing the OS is pretty much a no-brainer anymore. Nearly all of
any data I have that is important, including on my file server is
contained in the /home partitions.
Besides, if the OS itself gets broken badly enough, I just re-install -
usually to the latest release. Now if one has a lot of custom scripts,
configuration files, or messy-to-set-up applications (e.g. database, dev
tools, etc.), I can see doing a full backup to preserve that stuff
without taking too much time figuring out what and what not needs
saving. Fortunately, I don't have those problems so a full backup is
just a waste of both time and media for me.
Of course, even with apps, it's almost a given that at the time one of
them needs restoration, the backup copy (from a full backup source) is
probably at least one version old anyway, and might as well just be
re-installed.
I just ordered a pair of 80G USB2/Firewire drives to augment my DVD
backup. Should be a lot faster. I think I will keep a set of DVD's
off-site and use the hard drives for my day to day backups and one-off
archives. Between the drives and the 50 DVD+RW's I have 395G of backup
capacity so I think I am pretty well set.
So you are going to use the drives just for incremental backups? Are you
planning on rotating those two HD's or buying more? I'd be interested if
you explained a bit about your process. That is, how often do you make
incrementals, and how many backup sets (full and incremental) you use
for a home LAN.
As of this week I am using bacula to do my backups. I used to use mondo.
Bacula seems more popular, more flexible, and I like that it can do
network backups. But it is complicated software and it has a number of
rough edges. It took me probably 3 full working days (24 hours) to read
the manual, install it, debug a number of problems, and get all of the
kinks worked out of it.
So what backup software, if any, do you recommend for us mere mortals?
I would definitely do an incremental every night. Maybe a full backup
once a week or once a month depending. Definitely send a copy off-site
once a month.
Ahh. So does this imply you do incrementals daily on your home LAN?
Andy's suggestion of hot swap drive bays and a mirror, half of which
gets rotated regularly seems like a good plan also. I would do that
myself but I don't really want to invest in the hot swap chassis and all
of the drives etc.
Which is why I am interested in how most of you rotate your home backups.
--
Best Regards,
~DJA.
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