--- On Sun, 10/25/09, Leslie Rhorer <lrhorer@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Half the files I have lost on my video
> system were due to my
> personal errors. Absolutely none were due to drive
> failures. By a very
> wide margin, the most common cause of data loss is human
> error. EVERY
> SINGLE FILE THAT HAS EVER BEEN LOST SINCE THE FIRST DIGITAL
> COMPUTER WAS
> BUILT HAS BEEN DUE TO THERE NOT BEING A VALID BACKUP.
Remember: I, am not you. I am trying to tell you *my* actual experience.
> Here is the e-mail sent by the daily
> system backup:
> What's obscure about that?
Well, it doesn't say for dead-bolt sure that there has been a backup and *full*incontravertible*successful*verify*. If it does, it's not clear. And what does it take to set up this emailed report? And what backup system/script was used?
> It's also a simple matter to run a
> compare between the two systems. One can compare
> every single file, or for
> brevity one can easily compare only the most recently
> created files.
Yes yes, but how?
> > I can imagine setting up a fancy-pants backup
> > system then going about my life, and some quirk
> happens on the next update
> > which subtlely hoses my exotic backup system. It
> is desirable to have
> > bolt-tight assurance of backed-up data. (And
> please don't bore us with
> > 'nothing is for sure')
>
> Subtlely? Such a thing is no more
> likely (less so, in fact) with
> the backup system than with the main system. And what
> is with the
> characterization "exotic"? Your backup system should
> be as plain vanilla as
> a system gets. Load Debian (or whatever) with mail
> support, load the
> packages for NUT, rsync and ssh, configure them, and you're
> done.
Pfffff....
I don't understand how NUT plays into this.
> Create
> the wakeup / backup script on the main system, and you're
> on your way.
Wakeup script? What sort of backup script? I gather that very few have ever set up a comprehensive remote NAS backup system like this.
> > Also I've noticed rsync mentioned several times.
> This seems to have
> > facilities for incremental backups, but I've also read
> that it is non-
> > secure over networks and that we should use scp
> instead.
>
> It's secure if you use ssh with
> passphraseless keys as its transfer
> mechanism. Why are you worried about it if this is a
> home LAN, though? How
> is someone gong to sniff your LAN, especially the link
> between the two
> hosts?
I am told that use of OpenSSH vastly limits the bandwidth of the connection, due to encryption overhead. Backups could cost more than 24 hours a day, and/or cut into CPU cycles needed for commercial-flagging. So I'm looking for secure alternatives.
And no I'm not too concerned with someone sniffing my LAN, but if practical security can be had I always use it. For example I set up reverse SSH tunnels for MythTV, MySQL, and Squid. No it's not mandatory, and it is difficult, but it is best-practice.
> Unnecessary security
> notwithstanding, however, ssh with passphraseless keys is a
> great way to
> manage the remote system, so I suggest implementing it
> anyway.
Naturally I do, with the built-in security of NX. (nomachine.com)
> Sure. Lots of them. I can't
> think of any more straightforward than
> rsync, though.
Lots? OK, I am asking for alternatives.
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