[TriLUG] Re: Dieing hard drive?

[Aaron S. Joyner]

Ben Pitzer wrote:

>Unless some of you know of an inexpensive backup system that is larger than
>DVD and Travan tapes.  By inexpensive, I mean less than $500.  The $200 and
>under range would be better, but I'm not keeping my hopes up too far.
>
>Regards,
>Ben Pitzer
>  
>
Let me propose two simple solutions, one for on-site backup, and another 
for off-site (or simply more flexible) backup.  Hard drives are big and 
cheap - this is both the problem, and the solution.  Plunk an extra 
drive (or array of drives, depending on your storage requirements) into 
a server on the network.  Configure your backup method of choice to 
write to the disk setup on that server.  Scale according to taste.  A 
good suggestion for backup method, in this situation, is to use a 
central script on the backup server, which uses SSH via public keys, to 
fire off tar (or dump, if you prefer) on each of the remote machines.  
Pipe the data back through the ssh tunnel to the backup server - secure 
remote encrypted public-key authenticated backups.  :)  Total cost 
incurred is no more than the cost of the drive space - and since you'll 
most likely be storing compressed backups, and most of what you're 
backing up is uncompressed OS and Application data, you can store a fair 
bit in not much space.  For another very space-conscious method, see 
Jeremy Portzer and Jason Tower's previous presentations on rsync backup.

Option number two is a variation on the theme.  Pick up an external USB 
2.0 HDD enclosure (~$20 before TriLUG discount at Intrex), pick up an 
equal or larger-sized hard drive, install one in the other.  Hook it up, 
do your backups how ever you please (see previous paragraph), 
disconnect, and send it off site.  Rotate more than one external 
enclosure off site if you need frequently-updated off site backups.

Backups do not have to be cost-prohibitive.  :)

Aaron S. Joyner