Backups

Policy

There are at least three ways to make backups:

• a) We give you a 5TB portable drive, you keep it and write to it. Please ask for one!
• b) Use CrashPlan/rsync and/or DropBox/Sync/Box.com to create backups in the cloud.
• c) We backup /nfs/home and some other disks to tape, as follows:

Monthly backups

• Cluster 2: nfs-home:/nfs/home/ (/nfs/home)
• Cluster 2: nfs-soft:/nfs/soft (/nfs/soft)

Quarterly backups, starting first day of quarter

• Cluster 2: bet:/srv/store (/nfs/store)
• Cluster 2: shin:/db (/nfs/db)*
• Cluster 2: aleph:/var/lib/libvirt/images
• Cluster 2: tet:/var/lib/libvirt/images
• Open-E DSS requires special backup consideration

Never backed up (to tape)

• Cluster 2: bet:/srv/work (/nfs/work)
• Laptops
• Desktops
• No other user files are backed up, ever, unless by special request and agreed by email exchange.

Tape rotation and length of historical data

• We have four savepacks (sets of tapes, in a suitcase) that we rotate for /nfs/home.
• We set aside one of these savepacks quarterly, on the first backup of the quarter, as an offsite backup.
• We also pull savepacks out of rotation from time to time to provide additional long-term backups.

Note

At time of writing, this policy is only implemented on Cluster 2.

Restore

To have files restored from backup, please write to the sysadmins, stating file/directory name, the approximate time of when it was created in the form you want restored and when that copy was deleted or damaged. Even better, just use your own USB drive!

See Also

• Disk space policy

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