From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Apr 6 15:53:54 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DD9C116A402 for ; Fri, 6 Apr 2007 15:53:54 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from prvs=usenet=060991fdb2@iecc.com) Received: from gal.iecc.com (gal.iecc.com [208.31.42.53]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id CA83A13C465 for ; Fri, 6 Apr 2007 15:53:50 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from prvs=usenet=060991fdb2@iecc.com) Received: (qmail 90571 invoked by uid 8); 6 Apr 2007 15:27:08 -0000 To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Path: not-for-mail From: johnl@iecc.com (John L) Newsgroups: iecc.lists.freebsd-questions Date: Fri, 6 Apr 2007 15:27:08 +0000 (UTC) Organization: Taughannock Networks, Trumansburg NY Lines: 31 Message-ID: References: <20070406002614.75448.qmail@simone.iecc.com> <4615ECC6.3060801@u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: simone-wap.iecc.com X-Trace: gal.iecc.com 1175873228 90562 208.31.42.48 (6 Apr 2007 15:27:08 GMT) X-Complaints-To: abuse@iecc.com NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 6 Apr 2007 15:27:08 +0000 (UTC) Cleverness: some X-Newsreader: trn 4.0-test76 (Apr 2, 2001) Originator: johnl@iecc.com (John L) Subject: Re: backup solution for home FreeBSD server X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 06 Apr 2007 15:53:55 -0000 >> Get a couple of 150G USB disks. They work great, you can use >> dump/restore or just pax -r -w to copy stuff to the disks. >Have you also considered tape backup as well as standard disks? I used to use DLT tapes, and I looked at AIT before I decided on disks. The disks have a couple of advantages that would be hard to match with tape. One is that the backups are completely unattended; I have two USB drives plugged in at a time, and some little scripts wake up each night, figure out which disk has the least recent backups, delete enough old stuff to make room for a new backup, and then use pax -r -w to make the backup from each of the computers on my LAN. The only manual work I need to do is to swap a drive with the one in my safe deposit box once a week. Also, since they're disks, getting files back from a backup is a snap, just cp them from the most recent backup copy. The three disks together cost under $500, and if I need more backup space, I can just buy some more larger ones. To get approximately the same unattended backups I have with my USB disks I would need an AIT jukebox for about $4000. Getting files back would be much more painful, since I would have to spin through an entire dump or cpio image to find a file. Tapes make sense if you have a vast amount of data, multiple terabytes. You need a lot of terabytes before the cheaper media makes up for the much more expensive drives, and it's still nowhere near as convenient as disks. R's, John