[CentOS] CentOS Server Backup Options

Tue Mar 13 18:43:32 UTC 2012
Les Mikesell <lesmikesell at gmail.com>

On Tue, Mar 13, 2012 at 1:26 PM, Markus Falb <markus.falb at fasel.at> wrote:
>
>> Tape, and tape drives, have a bad reputation.  They are difficult and
>> time consuming to verify.
>
> Harddisks have a bad reputation too. They fail regulary.

Yes, but if they are online, in raid, with smart monitoring, you swap
them (maybe every 5 years or so, getting better...) and let the
replacement re-sync.  Anything else and you don't find out that it is
dead until you are doing a restore.

> Anyway, I would not feel comfortable about backing up data residing on a
> harddisk to another harddisk. I believe that a backup media has to
> provide different characteristics than the original media. An incident
> that harms original should not harm the backup.

I thought the old saying was that if something was important you
should have 3 copies, and don't let the person who destroyed the first
2 touch the 3rd.

> What about if a firmware bug destroys all data on day XXX on all
> harddisks ? Well, extra paranoid maybe and of course I have not thought
> of all possible things that *could* happen.

If you've been replacing your raid drives as they die over the years,
you probably won't be left with all the same model when this event
happens.

-- 
  Les Mikesell
    lesmikesell at gmail.com