On 8/2/07, Orlando Andico <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Ian, you seem to be becoming less humorless by the minute. :-D
Really? I didn't notice... :P > My point was, it's not appropriate to make blanket statements like > DON'T USE TAPE FOR BACKUP which may confuse the less-informed, when > some of the other practices one espouses aren't exactly a paragon of > best practice. If it came across as a blanket statement, then i apologize for the ALLCAPS and the flagrant manner by which I make my point. But then, my point was to point out technological issues pertaining to the topic which was, IIRC "TAPE DRIVES". Tape Drives, in all it's many incarnations, still are the same as they are since its inception. Sequential storage media, lacking any random access capability, and subject to numerous media faults, with no way of verifying media integrity except to re-read the contents of the archive and compare against the original copy. The procedure of which is both time-consuming, and depletes the lifetime of both the tape media and the tape head. This characteristic is to me, unacceptable, for "BACKUPS" - On-line or Near-Line or even Off-line backups. This characteristic is acceptable to me for archives, and non-mission critical data stores. A backup policy for Mission Critical data for me is to have multiple RELIABLE copies (snapshots) of data accessible at any point in time, and ready to be reloaded in a moments notice - the process of which should complete in a reasonable amount of time. Sure, the term 'Mission Critical' can be twisted and turned and viewed against some specific environment - from the trivial to the absurd. Upon which it just boils down to one or two questions - how much do you value your data, and how much losses will you incur if it is offline. Upon which it becomes a business and economic decision already, and not a technical one. It may be that some of you have differing views on the matter, and to that I bow in respect and say, "to each his own". If one takes a differing view on what 'Mission Critical data" should be and how it's handled, touche', and thanks for the healthy discussion this has resulted into. _________________________________________________ Philippine Linux Users' Group (PLUG) Mailing List [email protected] (#PLUG @ irc.free.net.ph) Read the Guidelines: http://linux.org.ph/lists Searchable Archives: http://archives.free.net.ph
