a little advice? backup strategy

[MacWright]

I've been very happy running 6.1 with 2 AIT-2 drives for many years ( and older Retro w/ Dats before). Since I'm still waiting for backward compatibility of 8.2 I have some time to think about other options. So if anyone has some sage advice, my ears are open.

 

This backup is for a graphics workstation and the daily backup ranges from 500MB to 18GB, the average being 3GB per day. (generally 5 working days, well OK sometimes it 6-7)

 

I currently backup to 2 AIT2 drives A and B, A is a daily backup B is a weekly backup. Once these files become older and backed up via Retro, I clean out the folders of unneeded files and move them out of the active working drive to external drives organized by client which simply act as accessible online backups.

 

So....... given the current state of affairs with Retro, and that I haven't been able to move up to SL until 8.2 arrives. And, since tape is old-school ( I actually have quite a few blank tapes and like the convenience of them) . What would you do?

 

any thoughts would be appreciated ( I may not do it, but I will listen : )

 

thank you

 

Edited June 10, 2010 by Guest

[MacWright]

I'm starting to formulate a new backup strategy the only problem is that I don't know if Retro 8.2 ( I have 6.1) will do this or whether another app is better suited for this.

 

I get a couple esata HDD docks that will backup to raw drives. I run an incremental backup of my working drives in the same way that I currently backup to tape. As the drives fill up the backup software calls for another drive ( just as it currently asks for new tapes) and the backup software keeps are running database that will identify the drives and the files on each drive when it's time to retrieve something..... but here's where I would like it to do something different than what I am currently doing... can the data be stored in it's native format and not in a proprietary format?

 

Can Retrospect do this or am I looking for something else?

 

thanks in advance.

[rhwalker]

May I suggest, before you start fooling with details like these, that you first forumulate a backup policy?

 

Here's a pretty good list of the issues to consider: What Should a Good Backup Policy Address?

 

Just as a comment, if you think about it for just a minute, it is necessary for Retrospect to store its backup data in a "proprietary format" in order to correctly preserve metadata for the variety of supported client platforms, and also to preserve revision history. However, Retrospect can (and always has been able to) store data in a "non-proprietary format" if you are willing to give up revision history and metadata preservation. In older versions it was called "duplicate", in Retrospect 8 it is called "copy". Regardless of what you call it, that's not a "backup", which preserves revision history and metadata. What you seem to want is a "sync" methodology, and there are better tools than Retrospect for that. Retrospect's strength is in backup and preservation of revision history, with ease of restore to a point in time.

 

Russ

[MacWright]

Hi Russ

 

the link doesn't seem to work. The method that I use for my client files has worked quite well for 10+ years. Our accounting computer is a different story and the backup policy is much different.

 

I probably didn't describe it well, but I don't think that I'm really syncing multiple drives. My active projects are on a single drive I need to do an incremental backup to a set of HardDisks instead of tape, this is the long term storage, and end up with a database to help with retrieving from these drives.

 

What may be confusing this is that I manually move the files from the working drive to a set of drives for active or easier access to the same files. But these are not backed up because the files were already backedup while on the working drive. So for this discussion the only drive that needs a scheduled active backup is the working drive.

 

 

sorry for the confusion.

[rhwalker]

the link doesn't seem to work.

Works fine for me using Firefox (3.6.3). Interestingly, the link seems to break in Safari (4.1).

 

I supplied it as a "TinyURL" because the actual link is long and a bit odd. Here's a link that works in Safari, but that doesn't display right in these forums if the actual link is used:

http://iwiring.net/#[[What%20Should%20a%20Good%20Backup%20Policy%20Address?]]

 

I need to do an incremental backup to a set of HardDisks instead of tape, this is the long term storage, and end up with a database to help with retrieving from these drives.

Retrospect has always been able to do that, and still can. Just make a disk media set, add the disks as members. However, because you seem to want to preserve version history by doing incremenetals, you will have to let Retrospect use its proprietary format. Regardless of what the currently-favored name is for the data set / backup set / media set, it's simply Retrospect's database, and the catalog is the index into the database.

 

Just as all software version control software uses a database (proprietary for each software package, RCS, SCCS, etc.), so does Retrospect.

 

Russ

[MacWright]

Hi Russ

 

Thanks again for your help. The link worked ( I jumped onto a PC ).

 

I think I'm OK with the procedure for this task. But I need to spend some time with the Retrospect Manual which I just downloaded. Retrospect has always backed up to tape very nicely for me, so I never needed to do much else with it. I'll need to investigate a Disk Media Set.

 

I'm wondering if I've totally misunderstood the proprietary nature of the Retrospect files. I've always assumed that the files that are saved are in a proprietary format, because I couldn't access them off the tape without retrospect I never tested it. But after reading over your thoughts I'm wondering if it's only the database that is proprietary. Are files directly accessible by the MacOS in a Disk Media Set without Retrospect and therefore not proprietary and only the database is proprietary? if so, I good with Retrospect for this task.

 

Either way I'll need to spend some time reading over the manual. Are there any other apps that you would recommend for me to compare?

 

thanks again.

[CallMeDave]

Are files directly accessible by the MacOS in a Disk Media Set without Retrospect

 

No, they are not.

 

 

 

[MacWright]

thanks Dave