[geeks] Dell T105 server arrives

[Shannon Hendrix]

On Apr 2, 2008, at 08:18 , Lionel Peterson wrote:

>> Everyone who needs backups and can't afford the extremely high cost  
>> of
>> tape... :)
>
> Not to get *too* picky, but a full system backup on this server  
> would be what, about 20 DVDs?

So?

I do that kind of thing all the time.

Besides, most of the time it only takes one DVD or CD because you  
don't back up every file on the system, just your data.

I don't like burned media, but can't afford anything else.

> Very few commercial enterprises can afford to have someone stand  
> over this box and shovel 20 DVD-Rs into the case to perform a backup.

Yeah, right... :)

Commercial enterprise have been paying someone to shove 20, 100, 1000  
media pieces into backup machines for 40 years now.  A great many  
still are.  I know at least three people who do that every day.

It used to be my job to do a 15 tape shuffle on Sun systems not all  
that many years ago.

When it got too big for me, we bought a tape robot.

> If you can't justify tape, use a removable HD (eSATA suggested).

Hard drives are great for a mirror, but they suck for a backup.

True removable media is easy to store and manage, so you can do things  
like incremental backups, snapshots, and have media redundancy.

You don't get that with hard drives, unless you like the idea of  
storing a few hundred fragile drives in a large room somewhere.

I understand some people use hard drives and deal with it, but it's  
not a real backup system.

Unfortunately, the industry still has not given us a good low cost  
media that fits with the times.

Just look at Blu-ray... it should have been here 5 years ago, probably  
before that.

It was delayed, not by technology, but greed.

My system right now involves an external hard drive and a NAS server  
to store redundant mirrors of important data, and CD/DVD backups for  
media redundancy and the ability to do incrementals, snapshots, and  
vault storage.

Not perfect, but all I can afford right now.

> If you can't justify an external HD, I question the value of the  
> data to be protected

That's silly.

The value of data has nothing at all to do with whether or not you can  
afford or otherwise justify a backup system.

I can't afford the backup system I need.

That doesn't mean my data has no value.


-- 
"Where some they sell their dreams for small desires."