Dont have much time, getting ready for work but we back up mission critical files to our centera, clarion or symmetrix arrays mirrored at two different sites. Which platform we use is dependent on the rpo and rto's needed. For our standard backups we backup to either a sun tape library, ibm tape library, vtl or cdl depending on the critical levels, size or number of files in the backup. Some backups go over IP, some are purely SAN backups. We replicate over a pure fiber connection installed and owned by our company between the two sites. I figured storage arrays were beyond the scope of a typical user here ;)
In the three years in the department the only disk based backups (the restore part) were due to human error in not being setup properly. And I agree with many of your points Cat. I also disagree with some, automation is a wonderful thing ;) Chris On Thu, May 14, 2009 at 5:45 PM, cat <[email protected]> wrote: > > Chris Gutzmer wrote: >> Cat, >> I disagree with you - why you may ask? because this is a backup! Not the >> primary copy. The chances of your primary drive and your external drive >> crashing at the same time are pretty low > > Having seen multiple RAID arrays pull a simultaneous fail, I have come > to distrust even them as a safe data holder. Maybe someday they will > come up with a non mechanical system which has a better safety rate but > for now optical is the safest storage. > Last year a shop doing CGI for a major release had their array fail and > they lost all their work, well over a year and several million dollars > worth went south for no clear reason. Much of the data was scrambled and > a total mess. Recovery cost them enormously (about $1k per gig for > several TB) and the time lost was not inconsiderable either. They had > considered DVD backup too time consuming but now lost over a month to > recovery time. Now they pull DVD backups of everything. > >> Burning to dvd is very manually labor intensive process. > > True, in a commercial environment at large volumes. However at home all > you do is start a burn and do wherever else you want and then switch > media if you need further backup. No real time wasted/lost. > >> Plus you need to >> remember what you backed up and when or just back it all up every time. > > I have different sub directories for backed up data so i always know > what is not safe and what is. > > > >> there is a failure rate on your dvd's. I can remember once when I copied my >> models off to cd and as a test I went to copy them back onto my drive. I >> have several failures. Have you tested your copies on DVD this way? I have >> not done it in several years as I was very dissapointed with my results. > > True, especially if you use junk media. However I use archival level > media only, even at home and have rarely had a problem. On the rare > times there was a CFC error the problem was the OS(Windows) and they ran > and copied fine on the Unix/Linux systems. The sole problems have been > failed burns, and those are rare and you know the disc is useless, so > there is no risk of accidental storage of a failed disc. > Being paranoid I reup my data every 5 years and have not had any losses > or fails whatsoever. Now my HD and OS based losses have been not > inconsiderable over the years. > One trick to getting a good burn is to use 1/2 or less the maximum burn > speed. It takes more time but is very unlikely to fail. > A while back I stumbled across some old CDs from my first CD burner and > they still read fine. However some of the programs were effectively dead > since their US no longer is used (at least not without more trouble than > the program is worth) > >> My backups are now completely automated :) > I trust automated anything about as far as I trust my parrot (and I > don't have a parrot). > >> Working in Storage Services for a fortune 500 company I can say that (our) >> standard practice dictates that only unchanging media should be written to >> optical media and periodic disaster recovery testing needs to be done. > > True but then how many model files get changed? Besides periodic > testing is normal in the computer world because as well know nothing is > 100% reliable > >> We >> just phased out the last of our optical media due to problems with the >> testing and recovery performance (OSAR) > > Then what do you use? We have considered Solid State Storage but have > not implemented it due to the still over high cost and mechanical > storage is just too risky and the chance of loss too high to use it as > the backup (you seriously do not want to lose a $20 million+ job to some > bug or glitch)For our mission critical storage we only trust optical > because we can not afford a failure. > > cat > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Papermodels II" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Papermodels?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
