[vox-tech] [fwd] backup solutions for 3 people

[Karsten M. Self]

(Resend:  Earthlink's been puking on outbound mail...)

on Wed, Jun 15, 2005 at 01:16:31PM -0700, Bill Kendrick (nbs at sonic.net) wro=
te:
> On behalf of Dylan Beaudette <debeaudette at ucdavis.edu>...
> 
> ----- Forwarded message from vox-tech-bounces at lists.lugod.org -----
> 
> Date: Wed, 15 Jun 2005 12:37:20 -0700
> From: Dylan Beaudette <debeaudette at ucdavis.edu>
> Subject: backup solutions for 3 people
> To: "Vox-Tech" <vox-tech at lists.lugod.org>
> Cc: "Anthony O'Geen, Ph.D." <atogeen at ucdavis.edu>
> Reply-To: debeaudette at ucdavis.edu
> 
> Hi everyone,
> 
> The suggestions for an external hard disk and enclosure were quite
> helpful.
> 
> Now I am searching for a good method of backing up a couple hundred
> Gigabytes of data on a media that is relatively safe.
> 
> A couple initial ideas:
> 
> 1. external HD with 5yr warranty
> 2. DVD-R
> 
> ..however both of these have their problems: moving parts and or
> sensitivity to UV.
> 
> any ideas on a USB/Firewire solution that can be moved between multiple=
 
> machines?

Tape.

Drives still aren't cheap, media is.  There's a lot of redundancy in,
well, redundant copies of data.

DVD volume is still only a handful of GiB.  Single tape media storage
capacity is approaching 100 GiB.

Other media types offer lower drive cost, but frequently fail to deliver
on:

  - Incremental storage cost, e.g.:  doubling your backup capacity
    (because your storage capacity's increased), increasing retention
    period, or increasing backup rotation.

  - Portability, particularly the ability to archive backups offsite.
    Ask the folks running datacenters at the former World Trade Center.
    Can you survive a building fire?  Flooded basement?  Regional
    outage (earthquake, city fire, hurricane, tsunami, statewide or
    multi-state power outage)?

  - Media integrity.  Tape has a proven long shelf life, with reasonable
    storage precautions.  It doesn't take heat well, but doesn't suffer
    bitrot common to CDR / DVDR, or drive failure (HD / portable HD
    storage).  It's possible partially recover even damaged tape.  And
    with low media costs, the ability to make (and likelihood of having)
    redudant copies increases.

Best guide:  compute your current and future storage needs.  Assess full
costs of a given solution.  Define your threat model and costs of
adverse events.

Note that mixed-mode backup systems can be useful.  E.g.:  networked
version control on works in process, snapshot archival of completed
projects, and incremental, rotated, offsite backups of complete systems.
This should give the ability to roll back minor changes, refer to a
library of completed projects, and recover systems completely in the
event of catastrophic failure.


Peace.

-- 
Karsten M. Self <kmself at ix.netcom.com>        http://kmself.home.netcom.com/
 What Part of "Gestalt" don't you understand?
    What would you do with a brain if you had one?
    -Dorothy to the Scarecrow
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