Backup routine opinion

[red]

I just have a question and would like an opinion about a backup procedure I plan to implement for a friend's small business.

 

Background: I have a Mandrake 10 system set up that simply offers file sharing between Windows and MAC machines for a small printing company. Thats it, nothing else.

 

To help make the business more efficient, they are going to begin keeping active customer files/designs etc. on the server instead of constantly transferring these files to/from zip or CD. While the server is plenty capable of this, it did not have a backup device installed when built. Now that customer data will be semi permanent on this system, we need to implement a backup strategy. My friend decided that 40GB tape backups were too costly at this time so I suggested adding a second HD (80GB) to the system and utilizing tar to backup the desired files from the main drive to this drive. While I know this is not the best scenario, I figure the chances of losing both drives at the same time are pretty slim. To further limit chances of corrupting data on the second drive, it is not automatically mounted at system startup. The script first mounts the drive, runs the backup, then unmounts the drive.

 

Any thoughts or opinions on this plan would be appreciated.

 

Thanks,

 

RED

[aru]

Put some fsck step before the script begins just to be sure the backup drive is OK (something similar of what the system does before mounting filesystems on bootup. --check /etc/rc.sysinit--)

 

Also consider a raid backup system alternative such as this linux journal purpose

[kmack]

Think I would also keep an offsite copy on CD's, a portable drive or some other medium. My worst day was when my 2 ZIP backups were both eaten by a bad ZIP drive.

 

Problem with the setup you are considering is if someone steals that one Linux server box, they have the whole business in their hands. Same is true if a fire or other disaster destroys the office. That's why it is a good idea to have a periodic secondary backup done and kept in another physical location. Just my 2 cents worth...

 

Otherwise take aru's advice and go for it. :D

[iphitus]

Grab yourself one or two usb hard drives.

 

orr, if you are daring, get a server elsewhere, and then have a script automatically sync the files with the server using somethin like rsync. then its all automated and easy and forgotten. The only cost would be the other server and the internet.

[sellis]

A friend of mine uses a similar thing at home, except he goes one further and disconnects the power from the backup drive when not in use.

 

However, he did find the problem with this setup, which is: what happens if the primary drive fails half way through a backup?

 

Answer: you lose everything.

 

Better to have two backup drives, so that even if something does go hideously wrong during the transfer, you still have one copy intact. The USB option previously mentioned sounds like a good idea to me too, since you can keep the drives offsite and unpowered when not in use.

[santner]

I have a cron script that mounts a seperate partition, backs up my files and then unmounts the partition. I then also burn a data dvd disc once a month as an extra means of safety. I would then recommend keeping the burned dvd backup in a firesafe box in case the worst happens.

[red]

ya know, it still sounds as if tapes are the way to go with this,I just wish I could have convinced him to fork over the dough for an adequate tape drive. Though I could limit the size of the shared folder ultimately limiting the size of the backup and allow me to purchase a smaller tape drive. Once the share gets full, they would be forced to archive their older or unused information, which could have a huge housekeeping benefit as well.

 

I appreciate all the input.

 

Thanks

 

RED