On Sat, 2004-02-07 at 13:47, Stuart Jansen wrote: > I've written a short (~2 pages) introduction to the issues involved in > designing system backups. Right now, it gives a view from 30,000 feet. > I'd like to bring it down to 10,000 feet while also cutting the length. > I welcome any feedback.
I like it so far. Coming closer to the ground, speaking generally of what to back up, is good. For example, /etc on linux servers, parts of /var, sql databases, web server document roots, cvs repositories, etc. Then the how. Perhaps touch on the common cases, for example mysql, openldap. The actual mechanism for backing up can by left somewhat general. For example there are complete backup solutions that run as a client/server solution. They are very nice for backing up someone's desktop machine as well as the servers. Or there's cron, tar, and rsync. Also there's is the issue of backup media, testing, near-line- vs off-line-storage. Something that is more common than it should be is to have had a backup solution in place for months or years without ever testing it to see if it really performed the backup correctly (or at all), and if all the data you would need is on there. The backup solution I'm currently using at work involves firewire removable IDE disks, a 250 gb disk per server. Although this only covers a 1/4 of our storage capacity, it can grow as needed. Also company policy is that only certain parts of the server get backuped up, so users know to put important data in certain areas. The advantage of disk over tape is mainly cost and speed. In addition, however, the disks are near-line backup storage, so in an emergency we could actually serve files straight off the backup disks. Another interesting aspect of our backup policy is archiving. We plan to archive changesets to the server every day on some sort of dvd-r media. That way even though the backup disks only go back at most one week, we can take any given file back almost a year through the dvds. (This will involve a database to index the dvds). Michael > > http://buscaluz.org/writings/backups.sxw > http://buscaluz.org/writings/backups.doc > http://buscaluz.org/writings/backups.pdf > > The sxw is, of course, the authoritative copy. > > I'm interested in knowing: > What did you find most interesting and useful? What did you feel could > be cut? What didn't I include but should have? > > In addition, I'm interested in any links to resources you've found to be > helpful. If you want to be really helpful, I welcome any > grammar/punctuation/spelling corrections. -- Michael Torrie <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ____________________ BYU Unix Users Group http://uug.byu.edu/ ___________________________________________________________________ List Info: http://uug.byu.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/uug-list
