[Discuss] On-site backups revisited - rsnapshot vs. CrashPlan

[richb at pioneer.ci.net (Rich Braun)]

Rich Pieri <richard.pieri at gmail.com> wrote:
> Converting ext2/3 to Btrfs can be done in place with three commands:
> umount, fsck, btrfs-convert.

Thanks for the suggestion.

> In terms of actual work performed up front by the guy at the keyboard,
> your database method takes 3+ hours of work while using Btrfs takes
> less than 5 minutes.

Well, now that the work is done you might compare it to a stock that's now
worth $10:  it no longer matters what it cost at the time you bought, you have
something worth $10 now and that's all the matters.  You have a btrfs system
based on a recent Linux, and I have an older one.

> RHEL v6 and Debian 6 have Btrfs kernel modules and userspace tools.
> These are hardly "very-recent" distros.

This is beside the point.  I (and many other readers of this posting, remember
that this is a public forum not a private consultation) happen to have file
servers built on older distros that are neither RHEL nor Debian.

We can maintain a combative tone if you wish, but it serves our mutual
readership better if we focus on teaching and persuading the broader audience
to try out the newer tools that we each have a passion for.

No two Linux sites, and no two Linux administrators, are alike.  We each bring
to the table a huge Swiss army knife, and we can each only know a handful of
the blades that this knife contains.  Which tool will you use?  Yes, mine tend
to be MySQL, bash and ruby at the moment; last year I learned Chef so now I
use that tool more than puppet.  Next I'm about to pick up python and
PostgreSQL.  Who knows what I'll be advocating in 3 years?  Life's too short
and unpredictable to know.

-rich