Fwd: offsite backups [was: tablets come with spyware / was: [WEB4LIB] Low-Cost Prototype OPAC System

[James Olson]

A very helpful idea on backups:

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Rich Kulawiec <rsk at gsp.org>
Date: Sun, Jan 6, 2013 at 7:40 AM
Subject: offsite backups [was: tablets come with spyware / was: [WEB4LIB]
Low-Cost Prototype OPAC System
To: James Olson <olsonjam at hawaii.edu>


I was wondering if you'd mind forwarding these comments (below) to the
web4lib list.  I'm not subscribed from this address, so the list management
software won't accept/distribute this message.
Thanks,
Rich


On Thu, Jan 03, 2013 at 12:50:02PM -1000, James Olson wrote:
> If you're contracting out to a remote server, it's something to discuss
> with your vendor.  [snip]

Let me suggest that one highly effective and cost-conscious way for
libraries to handle off-site backups/mirrors/etc. is to make reciprocal
agreements with each other.  If library A in Boston backs up to library
B in Detroit and C in Los Angeles, while B backs up to C as well as to
D in Mexico City and E in Montreal, etc., then everyone has each
others' back.  No need for more vendors, more cost, etc.: just do
it on a handshake.

It's also not out of the question (depending on data set sizes) to
keep multiple mirrors at the same offsite location -- insulation
against single disk failure.  This is simpler and easier than
dealing with RAID or ZFS.  Any site that has 2 mirrors at A and
3 at B and 1 at C is probably better backed up than most corporations.

Now that 4T disk drives are available and cheap, now that we have
very effective data replication with compression ("rsync" for example)
and now that we have decent full-disk encryption ("Truecrypt") it's
not hard or expensive to build a couple of backup boxes and ship
them off to partners, who in turn can ship theirs to you.  (Or you
could skip the shipping and build each others'.)  Nor is it difficult
to set up nightly backup synchronization that runs when library
networks are likely at their least busy.  Cron(1) and at(1) are your
friends. ;-)

And in the spirit of something we used to say back in the early
days of Usenet: "never underestimate the bandwidth of a station
wagon full of tapes".  The modern equivalent might be "never
underestimate the bandwidth of a FedEx'd box of disks", because
that's often one fast way to jumpstart a remote mirror.

Offsite backup/mirrors/etc. might not be immediately useful or
fully functional when compared to primary services, but in general
"some data" and "slow data" and even "eventual data" all soundly
trump "no data".

---rsk

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2013-01-07
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