Comments on: How many copies of static data are you backing up? http://blog.50micron.com/2007/05/13/how-many-copies-of-static-data-are-you-backing-up/ Ranting and raving about storage and technology Mon, 19 Dec 2011 15:36:52 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: SanGod http://blog.50micron.com/2007/05/13/how-many-copies-of-static-data-are-you-backing-up/comment-page-1/#comment-2874 SanGod Tue, 22 May 2007 18:13:56 +0000 http://www.sangod.com/?p=139#comment-2874 The RIAA can look all they want. I can now honestly say I have a CD to back up every song in my library. (Back-up? Only if I want to spend three weeks re-ripping everything) After the massive delete I just went through I have more than enough free space to maintain a second disk copy on a USB removable as well as to let my iPod act as the third, since it now stores most of the music as well. The RIAA can look all they want. I can now honestly say I have a CD to back up every song in my library. (Back-up? Only if I want to spend three weeks re-ripping everything)

After the massive delete I just went through I have more than enough free space to maintain a second disk copy on a USB removable as well as to let my iPod act as the third, since it now stores most of the music as well.

]]> By: danisaacs http://blog.50micron.com/2007/05/13/how-many-copies-of-static-data-are-you-backing-up/comment-page-1/#comment-2872 danisaacs Tue, 22 May 2007 17:06:52 +0000 http://www.sangod.com/?p=139#comment-2872 Heh. Netapp has been doing de-dup for more than a decade. They just call it "snapshots". You might want to think about S3, too. A friend of mine (who actually owns the webserver my site runs on and manages the cross-country hourlies) switched over to Amazon's S3, and figures it saved him a nice chunk of change. Smugmug also uses it. My buddy's reasoning is on his blog: http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/007624.html Heh. Netapp has been doing de-dup for more than a decade. They just call it “snapshots”.

You might want to think about S3, too. A friend of mine (who actually owns the webserver my site runs on and manages the cross-country hourlies) switched over to Amazon’s S3, and figures it saved him a nice chunk of change. Smugmug also uses it.

My buddy’s reasoning is on his blog:
http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/007624.html

]]> By: miah http://blog.50micron.com/2007/05/13/how-many-copies-of-static-data-are-you-backing-up/comment-page-1/#comment-2857 miah Tue, 22 May 2007 12:18:51 +0000 http://www.sangod.com/?p=139#comment-2857 Looks like as of June 1st, its $0.10 a GB month for storage, so if you only had 100GB you're looking at $10, which isn't too bad. I guess it depends on how much you value your mp3 collection and worry that Amazon may tell the RIAA what you've got ;) Looks like as of June 1st, its $0.10 a GB month for storage, so if you only had 100GB you’re looking at $10, which isn’t too bad. I guess it depends on how much you value your mp3 collection and worry that Amazon may tell the RIAA what you’ve got ;)

]]> By: miah http://blog.50micron.com/2007/05/13/how-many-copies-of-static-data-are-you-backing-up/comment-page-1/#comment-2856 miah Tue, 22 May 2007 12:13:14 +0000 http://www.sangod.com/?p=139#comment-2856 What about using something like Amazon S3 to do a offsite backup of your tunes? iirc the pricing wasn't bad, it would probably end up being cheaper than buying tapes. I think the initial transfer of all of your data might cost a bit, but once its there the incrementals shouldn't be bad. I found a list of backup tools that work with S3 here: http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/007641.html What about using something like Amazon S3 to do a offsite backup of your tunes? iirc the pricing wasn’t bad, it would probably end up being cheaper than buying tapes. I think the initial transfer of all of your data might cost a bit, but once its there the incrementals shouldn’t be bad. I found a list of backup tools that work with S3 here:

http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/007641.html

]]> By: SanGod http://blog.50micron.com/2007/05/13/how-many-copies-of-static-data-are-you-backing-up/comment-page-1/#comment-2706 SanGod Sat, 19 May 2007 15:19:12 +0000 http://www.sangod.com/?p=139#comment-2706 That sounds almost exacly like the sales pitch I got recently for Avamar. The problem is that when you're trying to sell the idea to the brass, billing based on the "before" footprint of the data, it's not cost effective. Now if they would start the fee schedule based on the "after" model I could probably see a use for it. When it comes down to it, it's still cheaper to throw more media servers, tapes and drives at the problem. What seems to make the most sense to me is the comment above by both danisaacs and Storagezilla, archive it to a WORM system like Centerra and forget about it. For my home use, I just bought a 250G SATA drive for $82, put it in an external case, and I do a nightly sync of the parts I need to keep. No more tape copies of stuff that never changes. ;-) That sounds almost exacly like the sales pitch I got recently for Avamar.

The problem is that when you’re trying to sell the idea to the brass, billing based on the “before” footprint of the data, it’s not cost effective. Now if they would start the fee schedule based on the “after” model I could probably see a use for it.

When it comes down to it, it’s still cheaper to throw more media servers, tapes and drives at the problem.

What seems to make the most sense to me is the comment above by both danisaacs and Storagezilla, archive it to a WORM system like Centerra and forget about it.

For my home use, I just bought a 250G SATA drive for $82, put it in an external case, and I do a nightly sync of the parts I need to keep. No more tape copies of stuff that never changes. ;-)

]]> By: vortix http://blog.50micron.com/2007/05/13/how-many-copies-of-static-data-are-you-backing-up/comment-page-1/#comment-2662 vortix Sat, 19 May 2007 00:43:06 +0000 http://www.sangod.com/?p=139#comment-2662 You need a system that can do deduplication :) We just purchased a deduplication system for both our production and DR environments that really helps us with storing multiple full backups. When data is written to it, it locates identical small chunks of data and essentially stores a pointer to the identical chunk of data, and only stores the chunk once. This has the effect of compressing the amount of data by 25x or more. Hopefully some day this type of technology will make it into the consumer market in the form of a file system that can do automatic deduplication or something like that....although not sure how technically possible that is to accomplish. You need a system that can do deduplication :) We just purchased a deduplication system for both our production and DR environments that really helps us with storing multiple full backups. When data is written to it, it locates identical small chunks of data and essentially stores a pointer to the identical chunk of data, and only stores the chunk once. This has the effect of compressing the amount of data by 25x or more.

Hopefully some day this type of technology will make it into the consumer market in the form of a file system that can do automatic deduplication or something like that….although not sure how technically possible that is to accomplish.

]]> By: SanGod http://blog.50micron.com/2007/05/13/how-many-copies-of-static-data-are-you-backing-up/comment-page-1/#comment-2572 SanGod Wed, 16 May 2007 13:45:41 +0000 http://www.sangod.com/?p=139#comment-2572 I actually got the VSS configured so that I get a snap at midnight every night, they are Raid-1 volumes so that's probably the best way to do it. I'll put a couple of external 250G drives to periodically copy the information to either using Replistor or my favourite RoboCopy. ;-) I actually got the VSS configured so that I get a snap at midnight every night, they are Raid-1 volumes so that’s probably the best way to do it.

I’ll put a couple of external 250G drives to periodically copy the information to either using Replistor or my favourite RoboCopy. ;-)

]]> By: danisaacs http://blog.50micron.com/2007/05/13/how-many-copies-of-static-data-are-you-backing-up/comment-page-1/#comment-2555 danisaacs Wed, 16 May 2007 03:40:02 +0000 http://www.sangod.com/?p=139#comment-2555 This is why i don't use tapes. :) I just mirror to another drive on my LAN. And important things like my pictures exist on two systems at my house, untold copies on Flickr, and on my webserver, which is also mirrored hourly from OH to CA. And anything that is easily replaceable, like most MP3s or DIVx movies, I don't bother with. Some things, like the Complete Beatles catalog, I keep on CD as well. And I've put a lot fo my movies on DVD-R just to ise whilst flying. This is why i don’t use tapes. :)

I just mirror to another drive on my LAN. And important things like my pictures exist on two systems at my house, untold copies on Flickr, and on my webserver, which is also mirrored hourly from OH to CA.

And anything that is easily replaceable, like most MP3s or DIVx movies, I don’t bother with. Some things, like the Complete Beatles catalog, I keep on CD as well. And I’ve put a lot fo my movies on DVD-R just to ise whilst flying.

]]> By: Storagezilla http://blog.50micron.com/2007/05/13/how-many-copies-of-static-data-are-you-backing-up/comment-page-1/#comment-2421 Storagezilla Sun, 13 May 2007 10:00:39 +0000 http://www.sangod.com/?p=139#comment-2421 <strong>When not to bother with backups</strong> If we could visualize backup recovery I think it would look something like the Kraken from Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. It that's much of a monster. Seriously. SanGod is wrestling with how many copies of static (Fixed) When not to bother with backups

If we could visualize backup recovery I think it would look something like the Kraken from Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest. It that’s much of a monster. Seriously. SanGod is wrestling with how many copies of static (Fixed)

]]> By: tim http://blog.50micron.com/2007/05/13/how-many-copies-of-static-data-are-you-backing-up/comment-page-1/#comment-2420 tim Sun, 13 May 2007 09:04:33 +0000 http://www.sangod.com/?p=139#comment-2420 *cough*vtl*cough* :) *cough*vtl*cough* :)

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