🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992May19.203802.12659@decuac.dec.com>,
mjr@hussar.dco.dec.com (Marcus J. "will do TCP/IP for food" Ranum)
writes:
|> trant@sgi.com writes:
|> >
|> > The method mentioned by Marcus is not a real option in my center
|> >where
|> >I have several "production" machines. I need to store data
|> off-site
|> >and I also
|> >need to have a local copy of the file for easy recovery.
|> 
|> 	Ideally (in the best of all possible worlds) offsite backup would
|> be done by running your dumps to an NSR server at another site.
|> This would
|> be really really nice, IMHO. I agree about the requirement for
|> offsite
|> store for "production" facilities, but I suspect you could get
|> pretty
|> darn "offsite" if you just did it over a network (especially with
|> some of
|> the huge sprawling bridged-together-massive "LAN"s that we're
|> seeing
|> these days). I could, for example, do NSR dumps over my "LAN" and
|> spin a tape 10miles away...

 I already do that, but for insurance purposes you need real remote
off-site
storage not just another building. I could possibly put in a
specialized room
or additional vault on-site somewhere but haven't. I have one of the
massive
bridged together LAN's but in California an entire campus could be
destroyed
by and earthquake followed by fire so real off-site is important to
me. 
 For a short time I am dumping one machine over the WAN from Dallas
so
you are correct about spinning tapes remotely.


|> 	Right now if we had a fire and my machine with the tapes burned
|> up
|> I'd be in deep yoghurt, since I keep the tapes in a box right next
|> to the
|> system. Hmmm....  Maybe now that you mention it, I'll migrate a few
|> of
|> them home.
 This fullfills the letter if not the letter of the requirements. Off
site storage is
also intended to be secure. It must also protect the data from theft.
 
|> 	With respect to the "only incremental" issue - I neglected to
|> mention that I often do a "save" of entire directory trees, and
|> when I
|> move or reconfigure a machine I often do a complete dump of that
|> one
|> system - so it's not purely incremental, but it's still very
|> irregular.

 I suspected as much, a development environment is much different
then
a production facility and so are it requirements. I worked in a
software/hardware
R&D lab for 8+ years and I'm now acutely aware of those differences.
 
|> 	I also have to admit that before I switched to NSR and the
|> backup policy I've currently implemented dumps only got done when
|> I
|> was in the office and had the time. IE: rarely. So even if my
|> current
|> scheme has some technical weaknesses, the net result is that life
|> is a
|> lot better all around. My co-workers haven't killed me yet.
|> 
|> mjr.

 The chances of being killed by co-workers, now that NSR is in use, 
have gone down severly. I wonder if I can get a refund on the life 
insurance policy?.
-- 
 -----
 Ken Trant <trant@sgi.com>     / Second Star to the right
 Senior Systems Administrator / And straight on till
 Information Services,       / Morning
 Silicon Graphics, Inc      / Peter Pan