Hi,
Max Hetrick wrote on 2009-06-02 17:43:29 -0400 [Re: [BackupPC-users] Backing up
a BackupPC server]:
> Skip Guenter wrote:
> > [...] I'm talking about the folks
> > who have a full time job that doesn't include "SysAdmin" but are trying
> > to keep a small office like environment backed up with minimal hardware
> > and skills.
> > [...]
> > This list seems dominated by SysAdmin types and that's understandable
> > and makes for a great source of knowledge. However, I can't help but
> > wonder how many little shmucks like me are out there happily using (or
> > getting ready to use) this package in sub 40 or even sub 20 machine
> > environments. I don't think ya'll hear from them much.
I tend to disagree. While my job *does* include system administration, it's
not that I'm desperately looking for ways to find more to do. I currently run
BackupPC at 2 client sites.
At site 1, I convinced my client that backups are better than no backups,
even if the data is, in his opinion, not crucial. With my knowledge of
BackupPC at the time, it was installed practically for free, costing just
some disk space that was available anyway.
At site 2, we've been running BackupPC alongside a tape-based backup scheme
(with some free but really crappy software) for a while, also because I was
familiar with the software and setting things up was no big deal. Since Debian
etch, the tape-based software won't run anymore. We first kept it running in a
chroot (with lots of bind mounts for the data), but have recently abandoned
it, because BackupPC does all we need, does it reliably and practically
maintenance-free. We back up one file server, one web server, one mail server
and one and a half notebooks. Oh, and one workstation at a remote location.
Not really an "enterprise type" setup.
When I find the time, I'll install it for my own machines. The issue here is
deciding which machine and which disk space to run it on, not setting it up.
> I consider myself a pretty
> knowledgeable person overall using Linux, and have been using
> RHEL/CentOS for about 6 or 7 years now. It's my job at my company, plus
> I write technical articles online for a publication, but I am by no
> means a filesystem and database guru.
And even if you were, how much time would you *want* to spend on tuning
performance and maintenance tasks?
> I think that anything to make the program better is welcome, but at what
> cost? If complexity is added where people now have to have knowledgeable
> people available in the database world, or in the filesystem world that
> BackupPC is running on, then what advantage does that bring.
Especially, as has been noted by Les before, if you need that knowledge at the
precise moment in time when everything has gone wrong and you just desperately
need access to your backups?
> For my applications, BackupPC works wonderful exactly the way it is. I'm
> not running enterprise grade stuff here though, so my opinion is of the
> little guy type. Everyone's situation is different, though. Just my
> thoughts, which might not mean much. It's just that the more I read the
> thread, the more it seems that the typical BackupPC user isn't chiming
> in. :)
I'm rather confident that most people will agree with this: I'd rather have
BackupPC be a piece of software that is easy to install, run and maintain,
without needing any additional knowledge, than not, if that is the only
difference.
If it is effectively feasible to implement certain features using a database,
and this speeds things up and has no downsides, then why not?
At this point, "enterprise grade users" will probably say, "we have
performance problems, and we'd be willing to overcome these by adding
complexity, even if it makes installing, running and maintaining BackupPC
more difficult". People *not* experiencing performance problems will tend
to disagree (and count me amongst them).
One thing to think about: is achieving the goal of making it easier to
replicate the pool off-site worth it that you may effectively *have to*
replicate your pool just to be sure a single crash won't wipe out your
backup history?
Regards,
Holger
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