On Mon, Mar 9, 2015 at 12:04 PM, Bob Goodwin <bobgoodwin@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > I had a mainboard fail in a box I use as a server, I moved the hard drive > into old computer and carried on from there. Now I've replaced the board and > intended to set it up using Raid to mirror two drives. However I have been > wondering if it wouldn't work just as well to periodically rsync the drive > in use with a second drive? > > That seems a more direct approach and I could easily check to make certain > that the second drive was a usable copy, insurance against loss of data. > > Am I going wrong somewhere in my thinking? Nope, definitely setup the rsync as backup before worrying about raid1 for improved uptime. Once the rsync is in place, should you wish to ensure improved uptime for either your production system or the backup itself, then consider raid1 in addition. Rsync gives you incremental backup flexibility, and at least the possibility of recovering not yet overwritten files. A common form of data loss is user induced, e.g. accidentally deleting a file. With raid1, that change happens immediately. With rsync, there's a delay. So you actually have a real backup with rsync between two independent file systems; whereas raid1 is really not backup, it's design goal is improving uptime so you can keep working despite a device failure. Another option is using rsync checksum verification, which is a ton slower, but absolutely ensures source and destination are the same independent of drives' ECC. -- Chris Murphy -- users mailing list users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe or change subscription options: https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/users Fedora Code of Conduct: http://fedoraproject.org/code-of-conduct Guidelines: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines Have a question? Ask away: http://ask.fedoraproject.org
