[Info-vax] OT: server farm backups

[terry+googleblog at tmk.com]

On Tuesday, September 30, 2014 6:56:35 AM UTC-4, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
> Granted, my data store is nowhere near the size of most people here's
> and being all academic, it is also not as critical.  But....  Since
> we outgrew the utility of tape drives (about a decade ago!!) this is
> the method I have been using.  I keep 4 copies of all user files.
> And, you  know what, as happy as everyone is with this system, I also
> backup all of my  own files here to a system located at my home.

In the "middle ground" of data sizes, tape is still a reasonable solution. I have 128TB+ in my spare dining room - http://www.tmk.com/transient/DSCF0892-crop-s.jpg - and back up to LTO-6. The library in the picture holds 44 tapes, for a usable offline capacity of 110TB or so. The library auto-loads the tapes, and when done I eject the magazines and put the tapes in Imation cases for transport to an offsite location. I also replicate these servers over a 2x10GbE link to another building a few blocks away for additional protection.

Once the next generation or 2 of LTO are released, I'll probably upgrade the disk drives from 2TB models to something in the 6/8/10TB range.

The file servers are homebuilt units - http://www.tmk.com/raidzilla2 - running FreeBSD w/ ZFS. The picture shows a VMS DS10, but that has since been replaced with a Dell PowerEdge R710 (also FreeBSD) running AlphaVM-Pro.

I think I'm redefining the boundaries of "home computing" 8-}