Re: Backups work!

> From: Damien Hull <dhull@digitaloverload.net>
> To: aklug@aklug.org
> Subject: Backups work!
> Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2007 21:48:43 -0900
>
> I write this because I know most people don't backup their data. Here's
> proof that they not only work but can save you time and effort.
>
> I was recently asked for a resume. I new I had one somewhere. After
> searching the server, workstation and laptop I found nothing. I got all
> the backups from the safe deposit box. I started with the oldest and
> worked my way up. The second DVD had what I was looking for.
>
> The backup was from September 2 2005.
>
> If you aren't backing up your data start now. Don't wait. It could save
> you.

I work and live in a hybrid Windows/Unixlike environment, and have
been using rsync under Cygwin as well as regular rsync for a while.
Some geek friends of mine in similar circumstances have recently
started using Unison, which looks promising (though I haven't tried it
yet):

From http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/unison/ :

Unison is a file-synchronization tool for Unix and Windows. It allows
two replicas of a collection of files and directories to be stored on
different hosts (or different disks on the same host), modified
separately, and then brought up to date by propagating the changes in
each replica to the other.

Unison shares a number of features with tools such as configuration
management packages (CVS, PRCS, Subversion, BitKeeper, etc.),
distributed filesystems (Coda, etc.), uni-directional mirroring
utilities (rsync, etc.), and other synchronizers (Intellisync,
Reconcile, etc). However, there are several points where it differs:

    * Unison runs on both Windows and many flavors of Unix (Solaris,
Linux, OS X, etc.) systems. Moreover, Unison works across platforms,
allowing you to synchronize a Windows laptop with a Unix server, for
example.
    * Unlike simple mirroring or backup utilities, Unison can deal
with updates to both replicas of a distributed directory structure.
Updates that do not conflict are propagated automatically. Conflicting
updates are detected and displayed.
    * Unlike a distributed filesystem, Unison is a user-level program:
there is no need to modify the kernel or to have superuser privileges
on either host.
    * Unison works between any pair of machines connected to the
internet, communicating over either a direct socket link or tunneling
over an encrypted ssh connection. It is careful with network
bandwidth, and runs well over slow links such as PPP connections.
Transfers of small updates to large files are optimized using a
compression protocol similar to rsync.
    * Unison is resilient to failure. It is careful to leave the
replicas and its own private structures in a sensible state at all
times, even in case of abnormal termination or communication failures.
    * Unison has a clear and precise specification.
    * Unison is free; full source code is available under the GNU
Public License.

Royce

-- 
Royce D. Williams                                - IP Engineering, ACS
personal: [first]@alaska.net                  - PGP: 3FC087DB/1776A531
work: [first.last]@acsalaska.net         - http://www.tycho.org/royce/
"Don't find fault, find a remedy; anybody can complain."  - Henry Ford
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