From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Jan 23 22:44:30 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id F3912106566C for ; Fri, 23 Jan 2009 22:44:29 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from olli@lurza.secnetix.de) Received: from lurza.secnetix.de (unknown [IPv6:2a01:170:102f::2]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 76B628FC19 for ; Fri, 23 Jan 2009 22:44:29 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from olli@lurza.secnetix.de) Received: from lurza.secnetix.de (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by lurza.secnetix.de (8.14.3/8.14.3) with ESMTP id n0NMiRHl098647; Fri, 23 Jan 2009 23:44:28 +0100 (CET) (envelope-from oliver.fromme@secnetix.de) Received: (from olli@localhost) by lurza.secnetix.de (8.14.3/8.14.3/Submit) id n0NMiRmM098646; Fri, 23 Jan 2009 23:44:27 +0100 (CET) (envelope-from olli) Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2009 23:44:27 +0100 (CET) Message-Id: <200901232244.n0NMiRmM098646@lurza.secnetix.de> From: Oliver Fromme To: freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG, bms@incunabulum.net In-Reply-To: <497A0BCA.5070904@incunabulum.net> X-Newsgroups: list.freebsd-stable User-Agent: tin/1.8.3-20070201 ("Scotasay") (UNIX) (FreeBSD/6.4-PRERELEASE-20080904 (i386)) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Greylist: Sender IP whitelisted, not delayed by milter-greylist-2.1.2 (lurza.secnetix.de [127.0.0.1]); Fri, 23 Jan 2009 23:44:28 +0100 (CET) Cc: Subject: Re: A nasty ataraid experience. X-BeenThere: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG, bms@incunabulum.net List-Id: Production branch of FreeBSD source code List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2009 22:44:30 -0000 Bruce M Simpson wrote: > [...] > I also now understand that I can't rely on RAID alone to keep the > integrity of my own data -- there is no substitute for backups, That's 100% true. RAID -- even true hardware RAID -- is *never* a substitute for backup. Consider: - Fire. - Theft. - Lightning strike or power surge. - The cleaning woman knocks the tower over. - ... In all of those cases, chances are that both disks in the RAID mirror die. Also, as you mentioned, it doesn't protect agains human errors ("rm *" in the wrong directory and similar things). Backups should always be made to media that can be taken offline and stored in a safe place: Tape, optical disks, hard disks in swappable drive trays, or external drives. > I just wish there were realistic backup solutions for individuals > trying to do things with technology right now, without paying over > the odds, or being ripped off. I think the best solution is to use standard hard disks in external enclosures (USB, Firewire, eSATA). They're fairly cheap these days and easy to handle. Furthermore they're quite fast. For a very simple backup solution I recommend to buy at least two USB disks and use them alternating, so you still have a good backup on the shelf when something catastrophic happens while the other one is connected to your computer. As for the backup software, I simply use "cpdup" (from ports/sysutils/cpdup) to duplicate the file systems. It's fast (copies only changed files), and you can easily restore files after an "rm *" by simply copying them back with cp. (The only gotcha is that cpdup doesn't preserve "holes" in sparse files, but cases are rare where you need that.) Of course you can also treat the disks like tapes and dump(8) to the raw device (or tar, cpio, whatever), if you prefer. YMMV, of course. Best regards Oliver -- Oliver Fromme, secnetix GmbH & Co. KG, Marktplatz 29, 85567 Grafing b. M. Handelsregister: Registergericht Muenchen, HRA 74606, Geschäftsfuehrung: secnetix Verwaltungsgesellsch. mbH, Handelsregister: Registergericht Mün- chen, HRB 125758, Geschäftsführer: Maik Bachmann, Olaf Erb, Ralf Gebhart FreeBSD-Dienstleistungen, -Produkte und mehr: http://www.secnetix.de/bsd "We will perhaps eventually be writing only small modules which are identi- fied by name as they are used to build larger ones, so that devices like indentation, rather than delimiters, might become feasible for expressing local structure in the source language." -- Donald E. Knuth, 1974