From owner-freebsd-questions Sat Feb 21 04:44:32 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id EAA20120 for freebsd-questions-outgoing; Sat, 21 Feb 1998 04:44:32 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from gate.leissner.se (gate.leissner.se [193.45.192.34]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id EAA20106 for ; Sat, 21 Feb 1998 04:44:28 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from pol@leissner.se) Received: from leissner.se (uucp@localhost) by gate.leissner.se (8.8.5/8.8.4) with UUCP id MAA08547 for freebsd.org!questions; Sat, 21 Feb 1998 12:44:26 GMT Received: from lda.leissner.se by lda.leissner.se id aa26125; 21 Feb 98 13:44 SNT Message-Id: <3.0.32.19980221134414.0072902c@lda> X-Sender: pol@lda X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Pro Version 3.0 (32) Date: Sat, 21 Feb 1998 13:44:16 +0100 To: questions@FreeBSD.ORG From: Peter Olsson Subject: Data mirroring, how to do it? Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG [I have searched the FAQ and the handbook, but find no info on this subject.] We have had two complete crashes in one of our production servers in the last half year. We have good cpio-backups, that's not a problem. But even if restoring is easy, it's slow. About half an hour to reinstall the system and 2,5 hours to restore the tape. And all work done since the nightly backup is lost. So we are interested in some kind of data-mirroring to minimize stops and data-loss. Either in hardware or software. Possibly another machine that is regularly updated and ready to plug in. Another machine would give me the advantage of having completely free hands while restoring the crashed server, but how do I keep the backup updated at all times? Complete mirroring could be given up in this case, maybe hourly updates are enough. We could probably find the money to buy great big servers with this built-in if we have to, but we'd like to investigate the cheaper options first. And even if we buy big servers, they have to be compatible with FreeBSD and what servers/mirroring technology would I have to use to get compatibility? I'm hoping to get some feedback from the FreeBSD community on this matter. How to do it, what to do it with and so on. Advantages and drawbacks with different methods. Everything a complete beginner in the field of data mirroring needs to know :) Thanks for your time! Peter Olsson pol@leissner.se To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message