Backups Aren't Simple
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Backups Aren't Simple
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Re: Backups Aren't Simple
#2"Obviously, none of this is worth anything if you don’t actually test restores."
One of my teachers claimed that contrary to common behavior, no one actually valued backups; it was restores that were worth paying for.
Re: Backups Aren't Simple
#3So is apparently making readable site.
Software like https://restic.net/ does a good job. Few choices of backend
Accepts stuff from pipe too so you can just pipe mysqldump or pg_dumpall without intermediate files
Very decent options for checking repo integrity, personally (well, at work too, we use it on few hundred user machines and servers) I also added "roll a dice for backup and try to restore it" test script to make sure it is working
Decent deduplication too so "store year's worth of weekly snapshot" is very sensible strategy once you exclude the "constantly changing and useless" (caches etc.) files out of it
can mount FUSE directory with all backups on sensible OSes.
https://kopia.io/ does the same +GUI but a bit worse on CLI front (it insists on keeping local config which makes scripting a bit more involved, but not much)
Re: Backups Aren't Simple
#4"encrypted, chunk-level deduplicated, GFS-rotated, point-in-time archived, cloud, 3-2-1 backup solution" is now my newest password, no commas. (Don't tell anyone!)
Re: Backups Aren't Simple
#5"encrypted, chunk-level deduplicated, GFS-rotated, point-in-time archived, cloud, 3-2-1 backup solution" is now my newest password, no commas. (Don't tell anyone!)
Change the o in rotated to a 0 and you might have a secure password.
Re: Backups Aren't Simple
#6"Obviously, none of this is worth anything if you don’t actually test restores." One of my teachers claimed that contrary to common behavior, no one actually valued backups; it was restores that were worth paying for.
It is a special sensation when you go to your hand rolled backup "solution" to make some simple recoveries and start finding problems. It is a complex mix of not dread but disgust, sick to your stomach, self-anger, and loss. I can only image what that's like with like all of your children's baby pictures being the lost material. Borg and restic are fantastic, it still seems like some sort of dummy proof mode might be desirable, all the features in the world and they have some some reasonably sane policy or something that includes verifications.
On the flip side of that though, really and truly, I've restored a laptop from a timemachine backup and it came back damn nearly identical and that was magical.
Re: Backups Aren't Simple
#7"Obviously, none of this is worth anything if you don’t actually test restores." One of my teachers claimed that contrary to common behavior, no one actually valued backups; it was restores that were worth paying for.
Try running a business on that basis - where do the restores come from? 8)
We charge our customers for backup storage by volume and that includes an annual demonstration of recovery. We fire up some or all of their systems on our gear in isolation and show that they are reasonably functional.
Your teacher's comment is riffing on the well trod lines of: "heights don't kill people, it's depths that kill people", which is all about perspective. This is is not related to "guns don't kill people ..." which is about agency.
Re: Backups Aren't Simple
#8"Obviously, none of this is worth anything if you don’t actually test restores." One of my teachers claimed that contrary to common behavior, no one actually valued backups; it was restores that were worth paying for.
Try running a business on that basis - where do the restores come from? 8) We charge our customers for backup storage by volume and that includes an annual demonstration of recovery. We fire up some or all of their systems on our gear in isolation and show that they are reasonably functional. Your teacher's comment is riffing on the well trod lines of: "heights don't kill people, it's depths that kill people", which…
"It's not the fall that kills you, it's the sudden stop at the end."
Re: Backups Aren't Simple
#9So is apparently making readable site. Software like https://restic.net/ does a good job. Few choices of backend Accepts stuff from pipe too so you can just pipe mysqldump or pg_dumpall without intermediate files Very decent options for checking repo integrity, personally (well, at work too, we use it on few hundred user machines and servers) I also added "roll a dice for backup and try to restore it" test script to…
importantly, does your die have a side that corresponds to a multi-continental cataclysmic natural disaster of magnitude only known unknown to pre-recorded-history
Re: Backups Aren't Simple
#10I don't want backups. I want synced duplicated data in geographically separated by shared credentials.