[H-GEN] DVD+RW media for backups

[Robert Brockway]

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On Tue, 18 Nov 2003, Greg Black wrote:

> Can you define "robust" for me?  I know from experience that I
> can drop my DDS tapes and that they will work afterwards.  Will
> a disk do that?

I define robust as being able to be moved from site to site by whatever
means of carry case I chose without fear the device won't work.  I don't
include dropping the backup device as a requirement for robust.  That
would come under the heading of "rugged" :)

I compare the older style removeable HDs (in caddies) that would fail just
by moving them around a little.  I trialed these as a backup solution but
quickly dropped them (excuse the pun).

Incidentally DLT tapes aren't supposed to survive being dropped either -
it breaks all the little teeth in the tape.

> On a different tack, I can fit several DDS tapes comfortably in
> my pocket or in a corner of my briefcase or my laptop's carry
> case.  How do the disks fare there?

Yes, size is an issue.  It is possible to go for 2.5" drives which have 2
advantages:

1/ Their size approaches that of tapes.
   Smaller than DLT, but not as small as DDS of course :)

2/ They do not require an external power supply.

Neither of these advantages has been sufficient for me to go for 2.5"
drives when the disadvantages are considered.

The 2.5" drives lose out in 3 ways:

1/ They cost significantly more.

2/ The drives lag in capacity.

3/ They are slower.

I've listed these in decreasing order of importance from my perspective.

> For small networks and home systems, which is what we're really
> covering at Humbug, there are several reasonably-priced backup
> solutions that can be setup.  There are two[1] important steps:
>
>  1. Make sure that you do your backups religiously.
>
>  2. Verify them every time.
>
>  3. Verify that you can restore from them successfully.
>
>  4. Automate as much of the process as you can: scripts and cron
>     are your friends.
>
>  5. Verify your automated operations separately from the other
>     verifications.
>
>  6. Do anything else that seems essential that I've left out :-)

Yeah, what he said :)

I can't understate the value in attempting a disaster recovery
test _before_ the disaster happens.  It's amazing how apparently
insignificant problems can make a restore much harder.  Best to figure
these problems out ahead of time.

Rob

-- 
Robert Brockway B.Sc. email: robert at timetraveller.org, zzbrock at uqconnect.net
Linux counter project ID #16440 (http://counter.li.org)
"The earth is but one country and mankind its citizens" -Baha'u'llah

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