David, I'm not sure how much data you're looking to backup - but yours is probably not a unique situation.
I think the biggest question is "Do you know what you want to backup?" If you can safely say "Yes" - and it's well organised - then the problem is massively diminished. The first thing you need to work out is size. If you have masses of data - automated NAS may be the best thing. If you have little, a USB hard disk may suffice. My recommendation (based on ~50GB on data) would be to setup a NAS with mirrored RAID1 disks. Have two partitions on each disk. Have a weekly backup that you store for 8 weeks, and a keep every 4th image for a month. Then set it up to rsync with your directories you need. That's mean your storage goes: Wk - DATA 1 - 50 2 - 100 3 - 150 4 - 250 5 - 300 6 - 350 7 - 400 8 - 500 That'll fit on a 500GB disk and give you a bit on versioning should the worst happen. It also helps illustrate how much storage you actually need for doing a backup of 50GB data. Let me know what your situation is and I'll try and help more. On Tue, 18 Sep 2007 19:44:56 +0100, David M <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hi, > > Now that external hard disks are cheap, I'm thinking about getting an > external hard disk so that I can keep a backup of my data. In fact, I'm > even thinking of getting *two* for alternate use so that if the worst > should happen and my system dies while backing up my data I haven't > toasted both my data and my sole backup.. > > When it comes to external disks, it seems I have the choice of not only > a plain-old hard disk connected via USB, but also the possibility of NAS > (networked-attached storage) where the hard disk is connected to my > network, and contains a stripped-down OS so that it presents itself as a > fileserver (I presume?). > > Does anybody know how well-supported either of these technologies are in > Ubuntu? In particular, I'd also want to format the disk in ext3 format > as I have no need or desire for MSWindows filesystems. > > > On the one hand, NAS seems neat, but I don't have a home network, only a > cheapo multi-port ADSL modem/router. These things tend to be a bit > gnarly (and unfriendly) to set up at the best of times, so I don't know > how easy - let alone whether - it would be possible to set the > modem/router up to allow my computer to see a NAS disk. And given the > horrible potential for unwittingly sharing the contents of a NAS disk > with the entire internet, I'd have to be very careful! I gather that it > is generally the case that any configuration of the NAS box can usually > be done via a browser front-end; obviously any disk which requires > Windows software is a no-no. > > On the other hand, a plain-old USB hard disk seems the simpler option. I > would naively assume that as USB is now well-proven technology, these > would work just fine with Ubuntu, but is that the case? How easy would > it be to automate backups to such a disk? Would it mount with a > persistent mount point, or would it change with every unplug or system > reboot? > > > Then there is the question of what backup strategy I should actually > use. I was assuming that an automated rsync every week would be the > easiest, but perhaps there are other possibilities? Something automated, > once configured, without requiring user intervention is an absolute > must: the whole point of doing backups is that I don't have to remember > to do it! > > I mentioned above that having two external hard disks, alternating > between current latest backup and disk being backed-up to, seemed a good > strategy, ensuring that I always have one backup at all times. > > Alternatively, perhaps some kind of mirror RAID strategy would be worth > considering, although that would seem to require me to have four hard > disks to maintain my "always one spare backup" strategy (and is outwith > my budget!). I also don't know whether USB HDs or NAS HDs are RAID-able. > > > Can anybody offer any advice on this? > > Thanks, > > > David. > > -- > David M. Edinburgh, Scotland. ---- [en,fr,(de) <-- corrections welcome] > * Please only quote minimum required for context; interleave reply text. > * On-list replies preferred. Please don't 'cc:' list messages to me! > * HTML/slug-trails/excess-quoting/no-context/zero-content => filtered! >>> Read lists as news: nntp://news.gmane.org info: http://gmane.org/ << > > > -- > [email protected] > https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk > https://wiki.kubuntu.org/UKTeam/ -- [email protected] https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.kubuntu.org/UKTeam/
