Backup Strategy

[MikeF]

We had been using Retrospect and a Firewire Ecrix VXA1 for backup purposes for the last 5 years or so. The tape drive stopped communicating with all computers so I opened it up and found out that it was a SCSI-1 tape drive with a SCSI to Firewire bridge. I scrounged up an old SCSI-1 external case and an 8600 to connect it to, and lo and behold, the drive functions perfectly (it had been having slight problems the last two time it was used, maybe part of the bridge failure)... So the bridge appears dead.

So, options are:
1. Contact Ecrix and see if I can get a replacement bridge
2. Get an old one off eBay
3. Get a new VXA1 from Ecrix or upgrade to a new VXA2 (tapes are compatible)
4. Dump the whole tape thing and go with hard drives.

So, what are some people's backup strategies? Obviously, a backup is useless if the medium fails (could probably use the 8600 hookup and Retrospect to get all the files off the many tapes if we want to change mediums -- tedious, but possible).

If using a hard drive scenario and the drive fails, so much for the backup, but the same is true if the tape gets destroyed or becomes unreadable...

Any thoughts? Recommendations?

[jdc]

how many gigs?

how many machines? kind?

how often?

rotating tape?

or?

[sscutchen]

I've just had to rely on my backup strategy. My Dual 1.8 Rev A blew up, and when I moved the HDs to my new Dual 2.5, one of the WDigitals crashed with clicking disease.

My strategy is to back up HD to HD because of the data volumes involved. I'm making a few modifications, but basically, this is what I'll end up with:

I have three HD for regular use:
1. I have a main HD that is my boot drive. My system is set up with 4 users. iTunes files are in the default place on this drive.
2. I have a media HD that contains my iPhoto files and video files.
3. I have a scratch HD that is a working volume for Final Cut. It also contains disk image backups of my Pismo, my iMac and old Macs.

Here's my backup strategy:

My main boot and media HDs will be mirrored with SuperDuper
My Pismo and iMac are mirrored to disk images on the scratch disk with SuperDuper

So that's a total of 5 HDs.

On top of this, I use ChronoSync to sync a few folders between computers. For example, I sync my web site Dreamweaver folders between the PMac and the Pismo.

[Paul F.]

"Yeah, what jdc said"..


I've considered setting up a pair of hard drives.. in a mirrored RAID.
Doesn't stop accidental deletions or anything, but if one drive fails, the other one is still good.

Don't know if that's the best solution for your situation though.

[MikeF]

It's probably 300-500GB spread over 5 machines -- 2 eMacs, 1 iMac, 1 PowerBook, 1 G5.

The first backup is all the data from each machine (I don't want to have to spend all the time reinstalling everything; each machine has different 'stuff' on it) and then only the stuff that changes, so incrementals are probably 10-20GB over the 5 machines (workspace changes, etc.).

Been trying to do it once a week for each machine.

Tapes are kept in a different location.

[mattkime]

I definitely recommend doing incremental backups with retrospect. that way if user error occurs, your ass is covered. for instance - if you delete a file in error, running superduper will remove that file at next sync. if you use retrospect - just go back to the backup date when the file existed. there it is.

I'd recommend a couple of firewire drives. do nightly backups and then have a drive for offsite backup. the offsite backup can be files only - think about it - if you office is in so much trouble that you need the off site backup, installing a few apps won't matter.

[New.Dad]

mattkime Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
[snip]
> I'd recommend a couple of firewire drives. do
> nightly backups and then have a drive for offsite
> backup. the offsite backup can be files only -
> think about it - if you office is in so much
> trouble that you need the off site backup,
> installing a few apps won't matter.

Well, if the office is in so much trouble, that means all the CD/DVD for installs are GONE, so installing a few apps without media does matter.

[mattkime]

>>Well, if the office is in so much trouble, that means all the CD/DVD for installs are GONE, so installing a few apps without media does matter.

Yes, but then so are your proof of liscences. that software you've back up...you have no proof that you're using it legally.