Archive for the ‘Backup Solutions’ Category

Microsoft’s new Live Mesh service is an absolute must for anyone who uses more then one computer. This free service allows you to Sync folders on multiple computers through the Internet. 

Basically all you do is setup the service, and then whenever a file is added or changed within a folder you have setup to Sync the file will be copied to all computers that you have configured to use Live Mesh.  This is an automatic process and happens as long as the computer is on and connected to the Internet.

Not only does it Sync files between computers, but you can access or add files using Internet Explorer from any computer connected to the Internet.

This is a free service, and you get up to 5 GB of storage.  This is more then enough for the average user. You can use this service not just as a handy way to keep track of your files, but also as a poor mans backup system.

Live Mesh is still in the Beta stage, but I have been using it for 2 weeks with no problems.

You can check it out at https://www.mesh.com/welcome/default.aspx .

This Class, and many more, are now hosted at EverymanIT.com.

This Class, and many more, are now hosted at EverymanIT.com.

RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks) was at the height of geekness only a few years ago.  IT guys would salivate as they talked about how many hot swappable SCSI drives were in their RAID 5 array.  RAID was the it thing.  If your server didn’t have RAID then it really wasn’t a server.

The basic premise behind RAID is that you use a special type of hardware to make a computer think that anywhere from 2-16 different hard disks were actually one disk.  The reason for this is that not that long ago individual hard drives were not very big.  So if you needed 100GB or more storage then you had to use RAID.  Additionally RAID offered fault tolerance by which if a single drive failed you could replace it without losing all of your data.  Simply put RAID was really cool and very useful.

Now that Western Digital has come out with a 2 Terabyte drive I can no longer recommend any of my clients use RAID.  The fact is most small business clients really don’t use more then 200GB so they don’t need to combine numerous drives to make one larger one. And, and this is a big AND, I’ve had a lot of problems with RAID controllers.

I have had numerous clients have bizarre server problems because a drive will not completely die and so the RAID goes a little spastic because it can’t figure out if there is a dead drive or not.  I have had RAID controllers die, and finding a new RAID controller on short notice isn’t as easy as it should be.  And I have actually witnessed 2 hard drives die within 5 minutes of each other which made the RAID useless anyway. Basically I have found RAID to be far more trouble then its worth.

Additionally now that backup systems have become a hell of a lot more stable and reliable to recover from I would much prefer that one of my clients servers goes completely down so that there cannot be any doubt to the problem.  If a drive dies I can swap it out, recover the server from the backup, and be on my way in a few hours.  Whereas when I have a problem with a RAID array it can take days to figure out what the hell is actually going on because it will give random weird problems, and then when it dies there’s a lot more to building a RAID configuration then just replacing a drive.

The last argument against RAID is data recovery.  If a regular server hard drive crashes it’s not overly complicated to recover the data off of the drive if your backup did fail.  If you are using RAID good luck trying to get anything if you’re a normal IT department of shop.

I have found that far too many people do not think about what would happen if their data disappeared. Not long ago everyone backed up their important documents on floppy disks. But with the death of floppy disks people seem to have also decided to leave backing up their documents behind.

Many people shrug off the loss of their data without much of a second thought. But I always ask my clients how long it would really take to recreate their data if it vanished in a moment. It’s surprising for many people to realize that it would take days or weeks to retype the documents and reports they use regularly.

Once people decide that regular backups are important they then have to decide between 2 major options in backup solutions. The first solution is to have an on site backup solution that records all data and information to a tape or local hard drive ( I will talk about this solution in another blog).

This solution is good because it is far quicker to recover data if their is a loss, and it is easier to perform a a "bare metal recovery". This is when a hard drive physically fails and the entire computer has to be recovered.

The second option is to have an online backup solution. This means that your data will be stored by a backup service and that it will be on servers that are far from where you are located.

The benefits of this are that if your home or office are hit by a tornado or fire your data will be safe. You do not need to worry about carrying around tapes or hard drives and the service generally works without any user interaction.

If you decide to go with the on line backup option we recommend Mozy.com to our clients. If you are a residential client they offer 2 GB of storage for free, or for $5 you can have unlimited storage. For Business clients they charge $7 plus $.50 per GB.

This is a VERY good solution for most people. Just go to www.Mozy.com and select the plan that you would like. There are other companies that offer this service, but Mozy is reliable and well known.

(I receive NO compensation from Mozy or by endorsing Mozy)

Update:

I was so impressed with Mozy I brought all my pictures home from the office on a terabyte hard drive and installed the new hard drive in my home PC.  Mozy had no problem accepting the new hard drive for backup and started the daily backup just fine.  There’s one quirk though.  With the additional 25 GB of photos to upload Mozy now says it will take 8 DAYS to backup everything.

So just keep this in mind.  If you have a lot of data to upload or download for a backup don’t expect to just download it in an hour or so and go on with your life.  This is an example of where you have to balance the safety of your data, with the convenience.