Advice on external backup of a Linux server.

[Rick Stevens]

Arthur Pemberton wrote:
[snip]
>>
>> You could even swap between a few external drives so that you have a 
>> USB drive in use, one on the shelf, one in the safety deposit box, one 
>> home, one in the car, etc. Get as crazy as you like. :-)
>>
> Interesting idea. However. What if something goes wrong in the chasis, 
> for example, power surge, all teh HDD's go? no?
> The prob I have I have with the USB solution is that it requires user 
> intervention.

ANY backup solution requires user intervention unless you're backing up
to something offsite.  You have to rotate your tapes, change CD-R or
DVD-R or swap the hard drive (USB, firewire or hot-swap) and take the
backup media off site if you want safety.

If you leave the media near the system being backed up, you aren't
secure.  I recommend to clients that, whatever media they use, AT LEAST
get a fire-rated document box (about $100) and put the media in it.  If
the building burns down or an earthquake occurs (both real possibilities
here in Southern California), at least the backup will probably survive.
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- Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens at vitalstream.com -
- VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
-                                                                    -
-        "And on the seventh day, He exited from append mode."       -
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