From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Dec 28 18:35:01 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C2D1316A4CE for ; Sun, 28 Dec 2003 18:35:01 -0800 (PST) Received: from anon.securenym.net (anon.securenym.net [209.113.101.100]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id AC04143D4C for ; Sun, 28 Dec 2003 18:34:08 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from dincht@securenym.net) Received: (from root@localhost) by anon.securenym.net (8.11.7/8.11.7) id hBT2TfB01408 for freebsd-questions@freebsd.org.filtered; Sun, 28 Dec 2003 20:29:41 -0600 (CST) Message-Id: <200312290229.hBT2TfB01408@anon.securenym.net> X-Securenym: dincht From: "C. Ulrich" To: Massimiliano Stucchi In-Reply-To: <20031228223005.79689a85@vekkio.willystudios.com> References: <3FEE672C.3030308@mac.com> <200312280819.hBS8Ji431054@thunder.trej.net> <16366.63099.154327.9444@jerusalem.litteratus.org> <200312282116.hBSLGHe13010@anon.securenym.net> <20031228223005.79689a85@vekkio.willystudios.com> Content-Type: text/plain Organization: The Peter Jennings Fan Club Mime-Version: 1.0 Date: Sun, 28 Dec 2003 21:28:50 -0500 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: What logs etc do I need tocheckfrequently? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 29 Dec 2003 02:35:01 -0000 On Sun, 2003-12-28 at 16:30, Massimiliano Stucchi wrote: > So why not use a cheap IDE RAID controller and do RAID1 ? I think it > would be much safer, and reduce the amount of time needed to restore the > system once a hard drive fails. We use RAID1 with a spare drive on our > web and email servers here, and there's no downtime each time a drive > fails, having put all the drives on hot-swap bays on a promise fasttrack > controller. > > Greetings You could, and it would definitely give you an increase in the availability of the machine as you mention. One disk goes down, simply mount the good one and press on. What it doesn't give you, however, is a proper backup solution. Backups protect not only against disk failures but also mitigate the following: * Accidental or hasty deletions * Security compromise * Catastrophic overall system failure (such as a power surge that takes out everything connected to the motherboard). This, of course, depends on the backups being isolated from the system, which mine currently are not. RAID will not help you in any of these situations. My incremental backup solution allows me to retrieve an exact copy of the contents of the file server as it looked at any point in time, from when the very first backup was made (about two years ago) to the present. This has saved me more times than I care to remember. Charles Ulrich -- http://bityard.net