Backup options for home

[Kent Borg]

[Apologies for posting to such an old thread, but I can't keep up with 
my mailing list traffic...]

At a previous job I crafted a nice solution:

There was a single Linux server with a pair software raid 1disks, it was 
a Samba server for MS Windows clients.  The server had a daily cron job 
that did a linkdest rsync backup to a normally readonly partition.   
That is, rsync has an option to make incremental backups that use 
hardlinks to store only one copy of data that has not changed.  These 
backups were automatically rotated to preserve a history that went back 
(I think) several months.

The server was on a UPS and seldom went down, but when it was booted a 
backup program needed to be started and the passphrase for an encryption 
key entered.

The backup program watched for a USB backup disk to be plugged in.  When 
it saw it it would automatically mount the encrypted volume and do the 
backup.  When done it would unmount the disk.

The practice then was to have two of these kept off-site, at home with 
the boss.  Each would be brought in alternately, plugged in in the 
morning and (make sure the light isn't blinking) unplugged and brought 
home at night.

I also prepared two copies of a sealed envelop with a printed copy of 
the actual encryption key and documentation on how to recover the data 
in case of flood/fire/earthquake, including a CD with useful stuff on 
it.  This was given to two company principals to bring home.  When I 
left the company I had them change the passphrase.


I tried to explain that it was a backup system, that permanent archiving 
of data is not covered.


-kb