Seth,
Looks like you have a plan and I'm sure it will work for you.
Try to keep system separate from data. The system changes are infrequent but
data changes every session. We put twelve workstation and server systems on
CD-ROMs and all of the Linux server data on removable hard drives.
Backups should be easy and scripts will do most of the work for you.
Restoring systems and data take thought, planning, and more time. Think it
out, do test restores with as many people watching as you can. Document
restore procedures and make sure your people understand how to restore. Your
goal should be to go on vacation and not hear from them - even if the place
gets hit by lightning and they loose all hardware. They will thank you for
giving them a disaster recovery plan.
Remember backups are no good if you can not restore when disaster strikes.
People panic and make mistakes, so document and rehearse restores so every
one involved can help to bring the system back on line. They all need to
understand what has to be done and when.
Seth, I wish you the best of luck and know you'll enjoy your vacation.
Bill
Seth wrote:
Thanks! We have 2 raid1 partitions right now, I set of disks has the OS the
other set the data. They are all in removable racks also. all I would have
to do is add some drives. I think I'm going to still do the rsysnc backup
though because I don't want any one to have to think about doing the backup.
But I'm going to talk with him about teaching him to do a backup to a mobile
rack, He is VERY concerned
about data safety, I'll think he'll go for it.
Seth
Bill Ehlert wrote:
Hi Seth,
Your plan may work for you, but may take extra money for hardware and suffer
from data transfer or communication problems. It will also take a lot of
your time and may be a problem when it comes time to restore data. Look for
something that a non-technical person can do to backup and RESTORE your
system and its data.
I suggest that you look into using a $20 mobile rack fitted with a 20 to 100
GB hard drive for your backups.
My best friend is a dentist and his office has a dozen workstations
connected to a Linux server. He uses a removable 20GB hard drive to do an
incremental backup every day. He has eight mobile rack cartriges that he
rotates each day and parks or saves one for a monthly backup. He takes a
daily backup home and returns to work the next day with an old rack
to be updated with new files.
We use a simple script and MD5 to do the backup and verify that the copy is
good. the dentist also benifits by having current patient records and xray
images at home to help a patient after hours or on the weekend.
Cost is minimal and can be spread over time. We paid about $20 for the
mobile rack and have gotten 20GB drives for $50 on sale at CompUSA. We
bought four to start and over time added to them as we needed, up to about
fourteen now. The dentist has eight for the office. two for his home, and he
gave me four.
Incremental data backup is quick, about 5 min for daily, or 30 min to a
freshly formatted empty drive. We scrub or format a removable backup drive
from time to time and rewrite all files to it.
We keep the operating systems for all workstations on CD-ROM as Norton Ghost
Images. Two CD-ROMs are made for each workstation, one for office and the
other is saved off site at the doctors home.
The backup design was to keep system and data separate and have redundant
backups for office and at home. We wanted to ensure that we could restore
everything in the event of fire, theft, or hardware failure.
We have used the system for over a year and it works. I have trained five
non-technical office personnel and the dentist to use the system. We plan
and do a RESTORE of both workstation and server at least twice a year to
ensure that procedures work and are known by all. I let the dentist or his
office manager do all the work and I stand by for questions if needed.
Mobile racks and cheap hard drives have been good to us. Oh, the drives
don't need to be fast, we use 5400 RPM. The drives are parked or offline
most of the time and are used once at the end of the day or if there is a
thunder storm coming.
Remember, keep it simple so non-techies can do the job, make sure it works
and several people understand the procedure to make it work.
Hope this helps you think of another way to backup and RESTORE your system
and data.
Bill
Seth Hollen wrote:
| Yesterday I was talking with a friend about paying a company to
| back up
his
| data offsite through the net. But the cost was going to be a couple
thousand
| dollars.
| Then it hit me! Host it at his house. He has a cable internetc
| onnection,
the
| office has DSL, and the server runs Redhat! I'm goning to take an
| older PC from his office and put a larger hard drive on it and
| redhat. Then I want
to
| use rsync to keep a perfect copy of the hard drive at his house.
| What do you think? I figure a simple script would do it.
| Anyone see any downsides to it?
|
| Seth
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