FC backup policy was Re: Fedora Core 2 wishlists

[Keith Lofstrom]

Jef Spaleta <jspaleta at princeton.edu> writes:

> I think it would be a mighty good thing for there to be a
> reasonably intuitive backup tool in place in Fedora Core, to help
> end-user hobbyists who are admining their own machines.

Ah, but the problem is, which tools?  There are many ways to copy data;
there are the "make an archive" types like dump, tar, and (apparently)
mondo, and the "duplicate the image" types exemplified by rsync. 

I use the latter, inside jwschultz's "dirvish" perl wrapper, and I am
very pleased with the resulting backups, less so with the documentation,
the metaphor, the recovery tools, etc.  I have the logical equivalent
of 90 nightly copies of my complete 85GB network stored on two redundant
200GB hard drives (one live, one in the fireproof safe), and have 
proven that I can restore from bare metal with a few minutes of typing
and 2 hours of unattended disk transfer.  But! ... the interface is
*not* suitable for newbies.  However, IT COULD BE!  (for more info on
backups with dirvish, see http:// www.pegasys.ws/dirvish/ or my incomplete
newbie+ backup page at http://www.keithl.com/linuxbackup.html )

In the Wonderful World of the Future, the backup process would be designed
during the install partitioning process (backup strategy helps determine
partition strategy), and the file integrity checking process would be
designed during the package install process (I still use tripwire, but
would love a config process that is aware of rpm).   These are all part
of the overall process of maintaining data integrity, one of the ways
Linux/Unix far surpasses the competition.  It would be nice to develop
this position of strength to support the newbie user.

If we make backup and restore REALLY REALLY easy, then the whole idea of
trying new bleeding edge distros becomes much less risky.  I can load a
rawhide distro, have it smash to bits, and be back to last night's FC1
status quo after a bit of typing and a trip to the movies.  Makes
experimenting a lot more attractive.  Among other things, it made
experimenting with Alan Cox's IDE hot swap (for the backup drives) 
easier, which made backups easier, which made other experiments easier...

So, after all that, I agree with the eventual addition of backup tools
(and restore tools!) as part of an intuitive data integrity toolset for
Fedora Core.  However, this will have to wait for the interfaces to 
improve, the toolsets to become more complete, and for developers to
become cognizant of the amazing capabilities these toolsets can have. 

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom           keithl at ieee.org         Voice (503)-520-1993
KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon"
Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs