On Wed, May 27, 2009 at 11:18:54AM -0500, lee wrote: > On Tue, May 26, 2009 at 10:46:47AM -0500, Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. wrote: > > In <20090526142918.gc5...@cat.rubenette.is-a-geek.com>, lee wrote: > > >On Mon, May 25, 2009 at 01:17:16PM -0500, Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. wrote: > > >> Use the old software. It might not run on the latest release of Debian, > > >> but it should run on whatever version you had before. Older releases > > >> are maintained in the archive, and you can archive whatever you need > > >> yourself if you don't want to depend on the Debian infrastructure. > > >How do you get it to run on > > >contemporary hardware? > > > > Run it on the hardware you were running it on before. We are talking about > > accessing the data for the purpose of migration; you should still have the > > hardware (and software) you are migrating from. > > 1.) When I'm changing hardware, I'm usually replacing board, CPU and > RAM. I take that out of the case and put the new stuff in. That means > I can't run the software on the old hardware anymore, not without > changing the stuff out again. It would really suck if I had to do > that.
If your backup/archive hardware won't connect to the new computer, then you'll need to migrate the data to new archive hardware first, then migrate the computer to new hardware. > 2.) I'm not so much talking about migration as about keeping data > readable. Keep it on your disks or put it aside on some removable > storage medium, then after 15 or 30 years, try to read it. Having used > a mysql database to store the data doesn't make it easier to read it > after 15 or 30 years. As far as I know, the only digital media that is designed to last that long on the shelf without data loss is tape. Since tape technology moves apace, you should probably archive a couple of tape drives along with the data. > > Find your local LUG and ask around. I can virtually guarantee that there > > someone with a storage unit full of old hardware they are keeping for some > > reason. Even better if you have a local FreeGeek. > > Who would keep all the old hardware? And for what? And it's nothing > you could rely on. Actually, I need old hardware. Newer hardware gives my wife headaches. It varies, though. Usually, she can tolerate my NetServer LPr dual P-II-450, but right now its a problem. I'll get my 486 out of storage and put NetBSD on it and see how it is for her. Of course, its ISA and won't boot if there's a drive bigger than 1.2 GB on either IDE controller. What I really need is an old 100 MHz or slower SMP server with scsi. Or, at least, an ISA scsi card. > How do you maintain 15 or 30 year old hardware? Carefully. Memory is still available for my 486. The biggest problem for me is hard drives; they die and aren't made small anymore. Scsi fixes that (since there are no bios issues with scsi). > > >And who guarantees that 30 year old hardware you kept in > > >storage will still work when you need it? > > > > You do. > > No, I don't. I have no way to do that. I didn't manufacture it. I can > only assume that it might work or not after 30 years. > > If what you're saying is practical for you, go ahead and keep your > pile of hardware over 30 years or longer and try to put something > together to read your data when you need to. That isn't practical for > me. Choose hardware in the first place that allows upgrade. E.g. scsi drives instead of IDE. Also, do you really need the data to sit on a shelf for 30 years, or can it be cycled to new media every 5 years? There's something to be said for tarring to a raw disk partition (so there's no filesystem to be corrupted), and putting the same data to three different drives. Then using some data comparision utility (there's a deb available, I forget the name) to choose the correct block for every block of the data. This is far more reliable given three partially corrupted data sets than e.g. raid where if a certain number of blocks fail, the whole disk is marked bad. Doug. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org