[CentOS] Backup server

[Les Mikesell]

Sorin Srbu wrote:
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: centos-bounces at centos.org [mailto:centos-bounces at centos.org] On Behalf
>> Of Benjamin Franz
>> Sent: Thursday, January 14, 2010 2:12 PM
>> To: CentOS mailing list
>> Subject: Re: [CentOS] Backup server
>>
>> If you have any budget at all, invest in bigger drives. 7200 RPM 1 TB
>> RAID rated drives can be bought for $160 each. Desktop rated 5900 RPM
>> 1.5 TB drives (which you can probably get away with in a dedicated
>> backup server since you don't care a lot about speed and can tolerate
>> long pauses for sector repair) can be bought for $110 each. Check Newegg.
> 
> I haven't got a budget really. Today I asked for a new group-printer today and 
> the boss looked pained... 8-}

SATA disks fit into 'office supply' budgets.

> I opted for the proven 500GB-sized disks and got more of those instead. I've 
> had a handful of 750GB-drives die on me recently.

Go to the vendor's web site, enter their serial numbers and get an RMA for a 
free replacement.  Every vendor has had bad batches.

> Somehow it feels the 
> technology isn't quite there yet for the bigger drive-sizes. Anybody remember 
> the IBM Deskstars in the early 00's...?

They replace them too, within the warranty period. This is the reason you are 
making backups, remember. Things break.

> Also, my experience is the more smaller disks you have, the faster they get. 
> Less to write to each I guess.

That's true when the heads seek independently.  With raid5 you lock onto the 
slowest of the set unless you have a very large number of drives.

>> Second, to maximize 'depth' of backups you should use a 'Tower of
>> Hanoi'-like backup system.
> 
> Good advice, thanks!

Backuppc will take care of that for you.

-- 
   Les Mikesell
    lesmikesell at gmail.com