Re: Computer backups

From: Bill Pitz (dakota@billpitz.com)
Date: Thu Dec 15 2005 - 02:44:28 EST


Jason Bleazard wrote:
> On Tue, December 13, 2005 1:57 am, Bill Pitz said:
>
>>For backups of all important systems, we now have a "file server" that's
>>just for backups. It's got a large internal mirrored RAID array that
>>synchronizes daily to an external USB 2.0 disk.
>
>
> If you don't mind me asking, how do you have an external USB disk large enough
> to mirror the entire array? I've thought about that, but I figured you'd have
> to do an array of a bunch of external drives. Is your solution any better?

We've got a 300GB disk in a USB 2.0 enclosure. The data is compressed
(bz2) and there's still a bit of room to spare on the disk. When I
first did the math, I figured that by the time we outgrew it, larger
disks would be easy to get a hold of.

Keep in mind that this is data from a handful of servers plus user stuff
stored on the server only. We're not backing up anyone's workstation --
  the policy is that you store your important (i.e. need to be backed
up) documents and other data on the file server's mapped drives which
are then backed up. We have enough spare PCs that if some part of
someone's workstation dies, we just give them a new one (pre-installed)
and then worry about getting the old one fixed. Once we have roaming
profiles fully configured, there won't even be a difference in using a
different PC.

-Bill



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