Agreed, bare metal restore is a must. On Fri, Dec 17, 2010 at 9:46 AM, Edward Ned Harvey <b...@nedharvey.com>wrote:
> > 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 > _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
