> From: discuss-boun...@blu.org [mailto:discuss-boun...@blu.org] On Behalf > Of Mark Woodward > > My question for you guys is what do you *want* in a backup. We've all > used these feature laden things that are out there, 99% of which is > pointless. What are "must haves?" What is something you've wanted but > can't find? What are features that are most pointless and why?
There are different requirements for laptops and servers. Laptops: Run frequently (minimum once daily), silently, in the background, low enough priority that users don't generally notice or care. Does not need to scan the entire filesystem to see which files have changed. It may seem obvious now, but must run while the OS is running. Must be able to exclude files and directories (even filetypes, etc)... Backup to remote server. The remote server must have sufficient security as to prevent Jane from reading Tarzan's backups. And ability to do baremetal restore. Ability to browse the backup to retrieve a specific file or subset of files. Compression goes without saying. Simple for users to restore their own stuff without IT help. Bonus features, not requirements: Able to run over WAN. Able to efficiently handle sparse files, such as guest VM's efficiently. Centralized management, so administrators can quickly see how recently somebody's backup was successful... And even threshold alerts if somebody's backup hasn't run in a week or something like that... Servers: Actually, most of the above applies for servers too. The main difference is assigning priorities to the various aspects listed above. Like, for example, I consider it an absolute requirement that servers are able to backup the whole filesystem without scanning the whole filesystem for changes, but on a laptop, that might be acceptable if only it's able to complete fast enough. But on a server, if you don't have instant snapshots etc, there is just absolutely no way possible to finish any significantly sized backups in a reasonable amount of time. Beyond this, I think I'm rambling. _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
