As we are all (I hope …) painfully aware, decent backups are absolutely
vital. Last week I looked at a potential option for offsite backup, and
solutions like Bacula are excellent for
providing a stable, reliable onsite backup, with historical data available.
But these solutions don’t provide rapid access to the backed-up
data in the event of a major disk crash (e.g., if a centralized home
disk bites the dust, leaving everyone on the system unable to work).
What you want here is an instant slot-in replacement, and for this,
rsync
is an excellent option.
rsync
doesn’t keep historical data, but if all you want is a
nightly current snapshot, it does that very well. You can use a “proper”
backup solution for your historical data.
Either set rsync up onto a disk that you can physically slot in to your
regular or another server; or use a spare machine that can be plugged in
immediately instead (e.g., by changing your NFS mappings). Set up a
cron
job to synchronise nightly, and you’re done. In the event
of a serious main server crash, just slot in the new disk and get everyone up
and running again with only 24 hours of data lost — which if your backup
schedule permits, you can then recover at leisure.
Be aware that although this will work if the main disk crashes overnight — as
rsync
will not be able to access it so won’t run — it will not work if something more subtle goes wrong. In this case, both disks will have corrupt
data, and you’re back to using your normal backups for a regular restore.
This article was first published on ServerWatch.com.
RELATED NEWS AND ANALYSIS
-
Ethics and Artificial Intelligence: Driving Greater Equality
FEATURE | By James Maguire,
December 16, 2020
-
AI vs. Machine Learning vs. Deep Learning
FEATURE | By Cynthia Harvey,
December 11, 2020
-
Huawei’s AI Update: Things Are Moving Faster Than We Think
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
December 04, 2020
-
Keeping Machine Learning Algorithms Honest in the ‘Ethics-First’ Era
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Guest Author,
November 18, 2020
-
Key Trends in Chatbots and RPA
FEATURE | By Guest Author,
November 10, 2020
-
Top 10 AIOps Companies
FEATURE | By Samuel Greengard,
November 05, 2020
-
What is Text Analysis?
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Guest Author,
November 02, 2020
-
How Intel’s Work With Autonomous Cars Could Redefine General Purpose AI
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Rob Enderle,
October 29, 2020
-
Dell Technologies World: Weaving Together Human And Machine Interaction For AI And Robotics
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Rob Enderle,
October 23, 2020
-
The Super Moderator, or How IBM Project Debater Could Save Social Media
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
October 16, 2020
-
Top 10 Chatbot Platforms
FEATURE | By Cynthia Harvey,
October 07, 2020
-
Finding a Career Path in AI
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Guest Author,
October 05, 2020
-
CIOs Discuss the Promise of AI and Data Science
FEATURE | By Guest Author,
September 25, 2020
-
Microsoft Is Building An AI Product That Could Predict The Future
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
September 25, 2020
-
Top 10 Machine Learning Companies 2021
FEATURE | By Cynthia Harvey,
September 22, 2020
-
NVIDIA and ARM: Massively Changing The AI Landscape
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Rob Enderle,
September 18, 2020
-
Continuous Intelligence: Expert Discussion [Video and Podcast]
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By James Maguire,
September 14, 2020
-
Artificial Intelligence: Governance and Ethics [Video]
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By James Maguire,
September 13, 2020
-
IBM Watson At The US Open: Showcasing The Power Of A Mature Enterprise-Class AI
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
September 11, 2020
-
Artificial Intelligence: Perception vs. Reality
FEATURE | By James Maguire,
September 09, 2020