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CAS TOPICS => The Longbranch => Topic started by: Professor Marvel on January 21, 2020, 02:46:09 AM

Title: DO YOUR OWN BACKUPS!
Post by: Professor Marvel on January 21, 2020, 02:46:09 AM
revised - I made the thread drift so bad .... I made the airplane discussion its own thread

so sticking to backups

I was doing computer crap all my life. from onboard flight systems software, to databases, to high-end unix & pc support.
we often had to find some kludge to make crap work.

I often told (and still tell ) people the following.
- no matter who you pay , no matter how much you pay,  nobody REALLY cares about your data except you.
- therefore, it is ON YOU to make your own backups.
- if it is business data that your business depends on, do it 3 separate times: daily, weekly, and monthly/quarterly.
---  for daily - use 7 different tapes/disks/thumbdrives, labeled by day. Test each backup  and rotate them
      for weekly use 4 different tapes/disks/thumbdrives, labeled by week .Test each backup  and rotate them
      for monthly, 12 different tapes/disks/thumbdrives, labeled by month .Test each backup  and rotate them

store them securely in a fireproof container.
make a copy of each monthly and store it "offsite" like in a safe deposit box.

If its your home stuff, burnable DVD's are cheap and easy.  Nowadays you can even add new stuff to the end until its full.
There is cheap or free backup software that can do it for you, some even look for duplicates and only backup changes.

As Jones said in another thread you can now get 2TB of disk dirt cheap. As long as you aren't trying to save movies,
That's a lot of photos and files.

Stick it in a fireproof box when you are not  archiving your stuff.


three of my favorite (former) work horror stories:

1)  No Offsite backup
we had several customers in the Twin Towers. Many had everything IN the office, no offsite backup.
ever one of those went under.
The ones who kept offsite backups called us and we set them up with emergency servers all over the east coast
and got them back in business in under two weeks. We pulled in technical sales, corporate sys admins, special services
and demo hardware from all over the country but we got them working.
ALL THEY NEEDED WAS A GOOD BACKUP TAPE.

2) II  Why change the tape?
One customer had a total disk failure. Replaced the hardware. They went to restore form "last nights" backup and the tape failed.
Tried 2 days ago. tape failed. tried last week. tape failed. Now they are scared.
Turns out the outsourced "backup vendor" outsourced and the outsourcer hired a kid who realized that no one ever checked on him.
So instead of rotating and testing the tapes, he left the same one in. It was pretty worn out. no data. This led to a federal audit
and they had no old data for over 6 months. Customer nearly went under.


3)   Outsourced
 Sun Micro "used to" use their own people to take care of all their own sys admin & DataBase duties.
"new management" decided that cost too much and farmed it out. They hired AT&T. AT&T shows up with their best people
draws up a great plan on paper and sticks fancy words in the contract that appears to guarentee everything.
problem: no oversight. depended on AT&T to monitor themselves!

fast forward: AT&T subcontracts to another vendor, who outsourced to individual contractors. I had developed
automated "find and fix" software that located network/server problems, found who owned it, and automatically
created a trouble ticket sent directly to the right guy.  "Right Guy" gets my ticket, does nothing. I call him and his boss
on my cellphone No Joy from them on the phone.  turns out he is in the next building, so I walk on down. WHILE ON THE CELL PHONE

First they are amazed that my badge opened their door and I showed up.
Next they are amazed that I have a printed copy of the ticket showing who got it, when and the time lapses.
So they claim they can't do anything about it......
I grab the Network Support guy ( from India ) and tell him "I will show you "

"See, the problem is the network stopped sending at THIS address. The ticket shows the address."
"The ticket also shows the error code, the failed router, and the room it's in. "

I walk him 100 feet down the hall to the router room.  He says he doesn't have access.
So I badge the door open and tell him "get to it"
he says "which router?"  I pointed at the one with the large red blinking FAIL light......
I finally had to get his boss to fix it.

BTW Sun Micro no longer exists.......
but I am retired LOL

prof marvel
Title: Re: DO YOUR OWN BACKUPS!
Post by: Coffinmaker on January 22, 2020, 09:38:26 AM

Ah, My Grand Perfesser .... Ain't being RETIRED a wonderful state??  I'm finally retired for the THIRD time.  Got it right this time too.

Tomorrow, my marvelous Mini Cooper goes inna shop.  On-Board computer is KAPUT.  Only thing it'll due is play the radio.  I don't have a "Back-Up" for it.  Boo Hisssssss.  Electronics be wunnerful, right up until they ain't.