[CoLoCo] 32 or 64

[Kevin Fries]

On Mon, 2007-11-05 at 16:14 -0700, Dave Vanderploeg wrote:
> Hey, I need to set up a new backup/fax server for my work and I need  
> some advice. Should I use 32 I'd 64 bit? Besides Rsync backups and  
> hylafax

I also love using a program called BackupPC (its in the repos).  It can
sometimes be a real PITA to set up, but has some GREAT features that
make it well worth the effort.

First of all, it can backup any desktop, Linux; Mac; or PC, or server on
the planet.

Second of all, it is smart enough to recognize the same file stored on
separate machines, and only store it once -- Joe as a memo stored as a
ODT file, Mary has the same memo, backuppc identifies this, stores the
backup once, and hard links to the file from both Joe and Mary's
backups.

Third, it uses linking features (tricks?) of the Linux file system to do
an incremental backup and make it appear as a full backup -- all files
stored in the pool directory; yesterday's backup directory is a series
of hard links to the appropriate files as of yesterday; today's backup
copies all the hard links, then does an incremental backup, storing the
new file in the pool and updating the link for only those files that
changed.

Fourth, because all the backups are file based (like your RSync
solution), it is fairly trivial to set up FAM and RSync to create a live
offsite backup with another server somewhere.

and last and I think best...

Fifth, restore capabilities are only a website away, and can easily be
performed by the end user (assuming they have enough rites to do so).
Because every day looks like a full system backup, I have even had
machines crash, and BackupPC offered to return all the datafiles back to
the Windows desktop as a ZIP file, or to do a normal restore.  Either
way, I did not have to apply the weekly restore, then 1-6 daily
incrementals like a traditional backup, and unlike RSync backups, I had
60 days worth of backups (configurable).

Like I said, this bad boy will cause you to down a fifth before it is
setup correctly, but once done, its probably the best backup I have ever
seen (better than RSync; better than Arcadia; and don't get me started
on how much better it is than Veritas)

-- 
Kevin Fries
Senior Linux Engineer
Computer and Communications Technology, Inc
A Division of Japan Communications Inc.