Chris Thorman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Perl + rsync + tar.gz = Great backup options.
Not really "great", but it does help with some issues. It's better than
the RAID solution, for instance - RAID is nice for protecting against
drive failure, but it's hardly a backup.
BTW, one of the original points of this thread was that many tools can't
handle resource forks. Unless I've missed something, rsync can't either.
>
> Personally, I like to use rsync (combined with ssh) both to achieve an
> offsite backup, but I also find it helpful within a machine to keep
> backups of a particular important directory. It's especially nice for
> snapshotting -- make a very fast local snapshot of a crucial directory,
> then, if you want, make a tarball of the resulting directory, ship the
> tarball offsite, to a remote server for tape backup, whatever you need.
The thing is, a homebrew backup scheme like this isn't really adequate.
For instance, what if you rsync to a remote server every night, and then
you accidentally delete a valuable file and realize it three days later?
This is why incremental non-clobbering snapshots were created. You'd
have to do a lot of work with a system like rsync in order to get the
same effect.
Tools like Retrospect are valuable for several reasons. First, they can
copy files from one place to another without fucking them up - but this
isn't exactly impressive in 2001. Second, and more important, they help
you manage a backup strategy. They can create and manage several backup
sets, automate the backup and restore processes according to a schedule,
handle incremental backups so you can have a decent backup scheme without
wasting time or money, and so on.
I'm also willing to pay money for a backup tool that /works/. It makes
me feel better if some company's reputation will be hopelessly smeared if
they release a backup tool that doesn't work. Presumably, people that
make backup tools know more about how to get it right than I do.
Besides, I got into this computer stuff so I could create cool things,
not so I could spend all day configuring my backup system. So, like
Randal, I'm still pussyfooting my Mac OS X systems until I can find a
backup solution that lets me sleep soundly at night.
-Ken
