[lug] Backup

[Daniel Webb]

On Tue, Dec 20, 2005 at 09:33:35PM -0700, Sean Reifschneider wrote:

> I can't remember the last time I lost data because of a hard drive failure.
> I'm directly responsible for something around 100 hard drives at tummy.com,
> and just rarely have problems.
 
I have many times over the years, although the more recent times I had learned
from the previous experiences and had non-tape backups.  I buy the cheapest
drives, though, so maybe that makes it more likely?  Like I said before, I've
seen about a dozen drives go belly up in 19 years, probably 1/3 of the drives
I've ever used.  Another person I know on this list had several die over the
last year.  I had one die last year.

> The sad thing is how often RAID leads to data loss.  Really.  Because so
> many people think of RAID as "backups", they often neglect regular backups.
> Worse, they tend to not set up RAID monitoring.  Funny how there's always
> time to set up RAID, but not time to set up backups or RAID monitoring.
> We get the calls when the SECOND drive in the RAID array fails.  Those are
> new clients, our new system workflows make sure that we get new systems set
> up with monitoring.

That's probably the last part of the equation I haven't researched very well.
What *are* the best RAID monitoring solutions or techniques for Linux software
RAID?  Do you have any favorite resources on the web and tools (preferably
with Debian packages)?

> Backups are the most important thing you can do if you care about your
> data.  Then consider RAID once you have committed to backups.

Absolutely agreed.  I learned how to set up RAID last when I was developing
the stategy described on my web page.  I'll put that disclaimer on there, it
is an important point.