On 2013-02-26, John R Pierce pierce@hogranch.com wrote:
the use case is more like, if the primary backup server fails, I'd like to have the secondary backup server running within a few hours of futzing with the existing backups available for recovery.
If you're doing something rsync-like, and if your buildings are close, you could simply move the backup server to the primary server's location, reconfigure the network interface, and drop it in as a replacement for the dead fileserver. That might be safer than risking a previously-mentioned fumblefingers.
In that case, you might want a backup of the backup machine, so that if you deploy the backup in this way, it doesn't become a single point of failure. This might be more of a hassle than you want to deal with.
--keith