Open discussion on modern backup methods

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jsmithepa

jsmithepa

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Jun 14, 2014
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For those of you keeping up with this stuff...

Am guessing most of us are using a second/third HD to backup our stuff (or a network share or NAS) because todays files are so huge and writing these things to tapes (traditional method) would be prohibitively slow, and HD storage is relatively cheap. Anybody here use tapes, do tell.

My concern is, if I have a Virus, a backup HD can be easily infected as well, as opposed to a tape, which can only be accessed by a specific app.

What is your thinking? What do people do nowadays?
 
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dgingeri
I was a test admin for a certain storage company that produced tape and hard drive backup products, so I've had a bit of exposure to such things.

Tape drives are slow, yes, but not totally useless. They're good for having an off-site backup. However, cloud storage is a better idea. That's why my old company was going down the tubes so badly. They probably don't have more than a year left for a useful future. They'll probably plug along on old tape revenue from government departments that require Congress's permission to move from it for the next 10 years, without any new products, and then become some savage patent troll company.

Backup to disk products, from single drive USB products to FC VTL products, are the most...
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jsmithepa

jsmithepa

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Jun 14, 2014
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Well Paul, you are the rare specimen, like one of my cousin "nope, don't have a TV at home" and his visiting mother deadpanned "how do you live?" (much funnier in their native language).

No pictures you care to save? no private info you keep everything memorized? Well that's another thread we won't go here.

People who backup, join in!
 
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corroded

corroded

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Sep 5, 2011
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...as a small business owner (Computers and Networking), I resell a Cloud Backup solution as a part of my strategy.

It's all about layers.

First tier - Local - I use GoodSync, 1 to 1 copy style backup and I set it to NOT propagate deletions (Bucket fills up). This is written to one of my 1 FreeNAS devices on a schedule.

Second Tier - Local Imaging - I use EasUS ToDo Backup. This is a manual, not a scheduled item. I periodically Image my machines onto the NAS

Third Tier - Offsite Backup - This is where the cloud backup comes in. I have 2TB of Cloud Storage for myself and my Customers. This backup has Ransomware Behavior detection in its latest build and I've enabled it (it looks at change volume behavior). This backup is a fully versioned file/folder backup. From a Recovery standpoint, I can pull a file/folder from a date and time. Works great.

Wishful thinking. I'd like to mash the above 3 into a "Time Machine" utility for Windows.
 
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greens

greens

Splendid
Jan 27, 2012
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He is referring to enterprise situations, not home use.

A tape backup serves little benefit over redundant storage in the event of a fire, earthquake, or any other act of god. As you say, it is somewhat secure - but only because it is old data! If you were perpetually backing up then any problems would be backed up with it. Additionally, it doesn't necessarily store system files, but rather raw data only. This does dramatically reduce the potential for continued infection.

I do not use redundant storage for my backup for numerous reasons. I simply "back-up" my sensitive data by saving it to two separate locations - not exactly possible for most business, but it does reduce the possibility of corrupted data from an infected system or broken array.

The big guys these days back-up remotely. "cloud" based storage is ideal as it eliminates the risk of physical loss. It eliminates the risk of disgruntled employee tampering. It also dramatically reduces the potential for continued infection. There are numerous benefits to using cloud based back-ups when security allows it.

 
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P

Paul NZ

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Sep 15, 2014
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Passwords/ pics etc are on the 1 TB. Which is partitioned into 4 200-250 GB partitions

So, when I do a clean install (if I have to on the 1 TB). All I have to do is select the partition that windows is on format it / reinstall windows

The other 3 partitions stay where they are.

No need to touch them
 
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dgingeri

dgingeri

Distinguished
Dec 4, 2009
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I was a test admin for a certain storage company that produced tape and hard drive backup products, so I've had a bit of exposure to such things.

Tape drives are slow, yes, but not totally useless. They're good for having an off-site backup. However, cloud storage is a better idea. That's why my old company was going down the tubes so badly. They probably don't have more than a year left for a useful future. They'll probably plug along on old tape revenue from government departments that require Congress's permission to move from it for the next 10 years, without any new products, and then become some savage patent troll company.

Backup to disk products, from single drive USB products to FC VTL products, are the most economical now. They have an up front cost, but cost less in the long run. My personal backups are done to USB hard drives. My current company's backups are done to a RAID 6 set through Linux iSCSI target. (A kind of budget software defined storage setup, with 10.8TB at 10Gb costing us less than $3000)

Cloud storage has it's uses, especially for backups, but there are some major issues with it. It's as slow as your internet connection, which can range from 10Mb effective home broadband to 1Gb business internet. It's still a FAR cry from 10Gb iSCSI or 8Gb FC (which is faster than 10Gb iSCSI due to overhead). Local backups are always going to be faster than cloud. If you're doing backups during the day, then that can interfere with your internet access, as well. In addition, many internet providers do maintenance overnight, when many companies back up. This can cause disconnections (like my current company's backups that get interrupted at 3:00AM every single night) as well as poorer performance even if it doesn't disconnect. If cloud is used for primary storage, avoiding the difficulties of self configured backup systems, the whole company can be brought to a screeching halt by a single construction accident. Cloud has it's place, but that should probably be reduced to just offsite copies of local backups.
 
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jsmithepa

jsmithepa

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Jun 14, 2014
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No, I mean home. The last "systematic" backup I used was in the 90's and used those QIC (quarter inch) cartridges, then 8mm. Trying to retrieve stuff from tapes was something else. Then at some point HD got so cheap I went, what's the point? All good ideas here. We are of course talking data backup here, not OS.
 
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