Hi Denny,
On 9 Apr 2004, at 7:45, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Hi All,
When my system has not crashed I make data permanent all the time with a CDRW
and DVD-RW device. Actually, I could have someone else do it as well, and I could
setup a cron job to do it later.
Thomas,
A few years ago, when we got to thinking about the most robust way to backup important information, we came to the conclusion that a backup off-site was essential, since there are many ways to lose data, not all coming from hard disk crashes.
Since we are generally too distracted to remember to take our newly-burned CD's somewhere out of the office for safe-keeping, we also set up a cronjob to rsync copies of important files from our production servers to an offsite (home) machine on the end of an ADSL line with a fixed IP address.
Best!
Denny Adelman
I have been a member of development teams responsible for subsystems that do off-line and on-line backup,
e.g. Optimal disk drives, tapes, CDs and magnetic cards. The cards were are still are scary, the tapes are a
wasted effort, the optical disk drives sometimes lose it but the CDs seem to have the highest reliability of
all.
Theoretically, 'bubble memory" should have the highest reliability, e.g., data constantly in motion and be
read at certain points. As a hardware 'backup' medium it never seemed to work. However, as a
software 'backup' medium it does have 'promise'.
Data is always in motion. Viewed another way, whenever data becomes 'static' it becomes vulnerable.
Can this become reliable? Is FibreChannel reliable? At 4 Gbps it better be.
Assume a configuration with maybe 6 remote systems interconnected with high-speed fibre and very
large caches. Interconnect and move. Okay, Where is the data? Can you tap into this one?
Can a disk drive become a cache memory? That is an easy one! The answer is yes! Can it become a
stack? Yes again! Why? Because it requires internal processing power to handle advance protocols,
e.g., SCSI.
Can the data be masked or hidden? Sure can - logic + processing power + storage - different algorithms
and memory management.
Can the disk function independently of the OS? Sure can - see OS device drivers.
Why hasn't this been done? No proven market!
How do I know this? Worked for Maxtor and started a Unix Interface function.
Would it be a great idea to configure a disk to save your data? Answer applies to Unix and Linux:
Yes - write a device driver, e.g., 'layered device driver.
Unfortunately it is a bit more expensive than a CD or a DVD and not quite as portable.
Regards!
-Thomas Clark
