Re: [TCLUG:11551] Hardware Question

["Carl Wilhelm Soderstrom" <carls@agritech.com>]

>What do you guys think about using another Hard Drive, perhaps located
>on a second machine, for backups in place of a Tape Drive?
        I do it around here. which doesn't necessarily mean it's a Good
Idea; but it's hardly a bad one. :)
        I use rsync (rsync.samba.org) to copy changed files from the main
drive to the backup drive. it's a cheesy way to do RAID. it sucks a chunk of
CPU, tho; don't do it more than every 15 mins or so (depending on your
processing power, system load, and bandwidth to the backup disk).
        the advantage over RAID is that if a file is deleted (and you don't
have rsync set to delete files on the target drive), it will still exist on
the backup disk, and you can 'rescue it from the wastebin'.
        the disadvantage (if you don't have rsync set to delete files on the
target drive) is that the backup drive will tend to get full of files that
were otherwise deleted, and you'll need to clean it up periodically. 

        however; I do still do backups to tape. :)

Carl Soderstrom
System Administrator	307 Brighton Ave. 
Minnesota DHIA		Buffalo, MN	
carls@agritech.com	(612) 682-1091