Hey everyone, My home server just had a disk failure a few weeks ago and like a lot of people I haven't ever really made backups on a regular basis. So I was looking into backup solutions which will save me from this situation again. Now I have Bacula setup, and backing up my files onto my home server. Although this works great, I have one issue: The disk in my server was the one that actually failed, and so, even with RAID1, could fail again. So to get around this I wanted to backup to external media aswell. I don't really think external hard drives are that great considering they are just as reliable as internal hard drives which would be pointless as RAID1 should be reliable enough in that case. Backing up to DVDs are quite unreliable too, a simple scratch could render the backup useless. Also it would require quite a lot of DVDs to backup my data (at least 500GB!). The only other option I could think of is to use tapes, but this option can be quite pricy for a home user. So I was wondering what you guys use for external backups for a home system containing at least 500GB worth of important data? Regards Hamzah -- M. Hamzah Khan RedHat Certified Engineer Number: 804005539516829 Email: hamzah at hamzahkhan.com URL: http://www.hamzahkhan.com -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: signature.asc Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 198 bytes Desc: This is a digitally signed message part URL: <http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos/attachments/20090927/7fb7796d/attachment.sig>
For backups I would actually look at a NAS Server dual bay or quad bay 1TB x 2 or 3 drives The NAS is pretty simple to setup and would require network backups and accessibility however you could actually do them in NTFS so that you could backup windows machines as well. http://www.google.com/products?hl=en&q=netgear+nas+storage&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=cuu_Sr6GHsKe8Abz1ZShAQ&sa=X&oi=product_result_group&ct=title&resnum=7 On Sun, Sep 27, 2009 at 5:40 PM, M. Hamzah Khan <hamzah at hamzahkhan.com>wrote:> Hey everyone, > > My home server just had a disk failure a few weeks ago and like a lot of > people I haven't ever really made backups on a regular basis. So I was > looking into backup solutions which will save me from this situation > again. > > Now I have Bacula setup, and backing up my files onto my home server. > > Although this works great, I have one issue: The disk in my server was > the one that actually failed, and so, even with RAID1, could fail again. > So to get around this I wanted to backup to external media aswell. > > I don't really think external hard drives are that great considering > they are just as reliable as internal hard drives which would be > pointless as RAID1 should be reliable enough in that case. > > Backing up to DVDs are quite unreliable too, a simple scratch could > render the backup useless. Also it would require quite a lot of DVDs to > backup my data (at least 500GB!). > > The only other option I could think of is to use tapes, but this option > can be quite pricy for a home user. > > So I was wondering what you guys use for external backups for a home > system containing at least 500GB worth of important data? > > Regards > > Hamzah > -- > M. Hamzah Khan > RedHat Certified Engineer Number: 804005539516829 > Email: hamzah at hamzahkhan.com > URL: http://www.hamzahkhan.com > > _______________________________________________ > CentOS mailing list > CentOS at centos.org > http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos > >-------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos/attachments/20090927/233f2910/attachment.html>
hi, On 27/09/09 23:40, M. Hamzah Khan wrote:> The only other option I could think of is to use tapes, but this option > can be quite pricy for a home user.With the cost of nearline, online media reducing all the time - tapes is bit of a black hole these days. Just think about what you want to backup against, make a list - that gives you something to tick off against. And then workout something that is cost effective and reasonable.> So I was wondering what you guys use for external backups for a home > system containing at least 500GB worth of important data?My home network is 1 media pc, 4 desktop machines and two laptops. Of all of these, only 1 machine is really on 24/7 - thats the home server, if you will. Its also the only machine to have significant storage at 6x500GB disks. The others just have enough to get the OS going and some app space. My main 'backup' is that those disks are organised into a raid-10, and I have a usb hosted 750GB drive for things that I want to take offline. All the disks are spread out over different batch numbers and I've tried to mix seagate and western digital disks. Having lost many disks over the years, I've not lost any data as yet. ( prolly tempting fate here, I guess all the disks are now going to implode at 5am tomorrow morning! ) rsync is the only 'app' that I use for backups at home. - KB
At Sun, 27 Sep 2009 23:40:17 +0100 CentOS mailing list <centos at centos.org> wrote:> > > > Hey everyone, > > My home server just had a disk failure a few weeks ago and like a lot of > people I haven't ever really made backups on a regular basis. So I was > looking into backup solutions which will save me from this situation > again. > > Now I have Bacula setup, and backing up my files onto my home server. > > Although this works great, I have one issue: The disk in my server was > the one that actually failed, and so, even with RAID1, could fail again. > So to get around this I wanted to backup to external media aswell. > > I don't really think external hard drives are that great considering > they are just as reliable as internal hard drives which would be > pointless as RAID1 should be reliable enough in that case.The point to using an external hard drive is that unlike the internal one(s), the external one(s) would be 'idle' most of the time (only active during the actual backup process, which would be a once every n time units (once a day, once a week, whatever). Depending on the technology in use, 'inactive' can mean unmounted, sleep mode, powered off, disconnected, etc.> > Backing up to DVDs are quite unreliable too, a simple scratch could > render the backup useless. Also it would require quite a lot of DVDs to > backup my data (at least 500GB!).The clue here is 'Jewel Cases!' Keep your CDs and DVDs in Jewel Cases. Don't store CDs and DVDs in sleves or on a spindle or other 'low cost' option. Use a proper Jewel Case.> > The only other option I could think of is to use tapes, but this option > can be quite pricy for a home user.Tapes are actually the worst option. All maner of failure modes, unless you go to extreme measures to protect them (which talks it from a pricy option to an imposibly pricy option).> > So I was wondering what you guys use for external backups for a home > system containing at least 500GB worth of important data?I don't have disk that ginormous (and cannot imagine having disks that size). I have a 73gig SCSI system disk, that I do monthly fulls and daily incrementals to an enternal 120gig SATA 2.5" disk in an USB enclosure. I run a cron job that uses dump and a Tower Of Hanoi sequence. Monthly I manually burn DVDs of the previous months backups.> > Regards > > Hamzah-- Robert Heller -- 978-544-6933 Deepwoods Software -- Download the Model Railroad System http://www.deepsoft.com/ -- Binaries for Linux and MS-Windows heller at deepsoft.com -- http://www.deepsoft.com/ModelRailroadSystem/