This thread seems to have degenerated into a discussion about the finer
points of the rm command ;-) but I'll throw in my $0.02 about backups anyway:
We BRU and HP SCSI DDS-2 and DDS-4 tape drives. Full backups are performed
Friday with differential backups Saturday thru Thursday. The Saturday &
Sunday backups are written to the Friday tape since there's no one around
to change the tape, but I figure better that than no backup since we're
open 7 days a week. There are 4 sets of daily tapes so they get rotated
roughly once a month. The first Friday of the month becomes the previous
month's archival tape which is kept for a year. The first Friday of the
year becomes the previous year's archival tape which is kept
indefinitely. Yes that's quite a few tapes but I'm pretty religious about
backups. I also pick at least one tape each week and verify that there's
actually data on it. Tapes are taken to off-site storage once a week which
can hamper file restoration but they're only about 15 minutes away.
Yes BRU is a commercial product but it does what I want and it doesn't cost
all that much.
I'd have to disagree that tapes on the whole are unreliable. I think it
depends largely on the brand of tapes and tape drive. We've had good luck
sticking with HP DDS tapes & drives. I *have* had bad experiences with
TR-X tapes & drives that use the floppy interface, so I don't use them
anymore. Use good tapes/drives, clean the drives according to the
manufacturer's specs, store the tapes in an appropriate location and you
shouldn't have many problems.
Additionally, important system data (like /var) and user data (like /home)
are kept on software RAID1 filesystems to keep them safe from disk
failure. I can always restore the OS from tape or reinstall from CD if the
need arises, but
That's what we do here - as always, your needs may (and probably will) vary.
-Eric
Eric Sisler
Library Computer Technician
Westminster Public Library
Westminster, CO, USA
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Linux - don't fear the Penguin.
Want to know what we use Linux for?
Visit http://gromit.westminster.lib.co.us/linux
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