[nylug-talk] External HDs for Remote Backup

[Peter C. Norton]

I do this for my home backups, but with ext3. The external drive
doesn't get turned on all that much, just 1x a week to run my backups.

I'd be very wary about using ntfs from a linux host, though. I think
you'd be better off finding a bootable CD or flash distro that lets
you export the drive via SMB in the case of a major disaster, so your
DR guy can plug the thing into a pc, install/use the CD burning
software you put on it, burn the image, then bring it up and follow a
plan to export the disk.

I recommend using a native linux filesystem (and perhaps xfs or jfs
would be a better choice) because you're probably going to lose data
to ntfs under linux faster than you will to the next
fire/flood/tornado/world series loss etc.

http://www.linux-ntfs.org/ says pretty clearly things like:

"A fuse module: You can now mount your NTFS volume with FUSE. This
means more features (YES, WRITE SUPPORT IS HERE) on the expense of
speed and stability. I use it on my own (backuped) data, but it is
still experimental so beware. Read more ..."

note: "speed and stability"

"Write support: Last, but not least, the kernel driver now does all
sorts of mambo jumbo when mounting a volume R/W. Features come slower
than ntfsmount (fuse) but much more stable."

So I would count this as "don't bet the farm on it" technology.

-Peter


On Wed, May 10, 2006 at 06:37:33PM +0200, Michael Ruebner wrote:
> Dear LUGgers,
> 
> I've been running remote backups (rsync over IPSec VPN) on/from several
> Debian systems for a while, and I would like to switch from an internal
> HD to an external HD setup, facilitating on-site restores (at least
> that's the idea).
> 
> I was thinking about a couple of external HDs connected to a dedicated
> backup server via firewire or USB. Since most of the data comes from
> Samba file servers slaving away for diverse Windows clients, fat32 or
> NTFS would be the file system of choice.
> 
> Does anyone run a similar setup and would like to share thoughts,
> experience, caveats; or simply provide a sanity check?
> 
> Any input greatly appreciated.
> 
> Mike
> 
> _____________________________________________________________________________
> Hire expert Linux talent by posting jobs here :: http://jobs.nylug.org
> The nylug-talk mailing list is at nylug-talk at nylug.org
> The list archive is at http://nylug.org/pipermail/nylug-talk
> To subscribe or unsubscribe: http://nylug.org/mailman/listinfo/nylug-talk

-- 
The 5 year plan:
In five years we'll make up another plan.
Or just re-use this one.