Re: [rdiff-backup-users] rdiff-backup for email

[roland]

Hi !

how many files ?
what type of files? (many small ones, some large ones like database backing 
store...)
what backup stragegy?  (1xfull, 6xincremental in a week? )
could you perhaps describe your current backup strategy ?

it´s important to put backups with mission critical data to offline media.
harddisks and a "write backup to harddisk"-tool alone may be not safe 
enough.
also important is to do recover tests at some interval.

furthermore, you have no guaranteed support with rdiff-backup, i.e. if you 
get a real problem,  there is no warranty that you get proper help.
unfortunately the main developer is quite inactive and i have seen the one 
or other questions/problems on this list being unresolved due to lack of 
people helping or lack of knowledge about rdiff-backup internals.

the positive thing is:
rdiff-backup and especially the backup format is "understandable" - i.e. you 
can investigate into it yourself if you have some programming skills.
the latest backup is always a 1:1 copy of your original data (like rsync), 
which can be recovered without rdiff-backup working at all.
furthermore, you can restore older files without rdiff-backup if you have 
understood how files being stored (reverse diffs) , so you can recover 
single files from the backup repository with nothing more than rdiff 
utility.

rdiff-backup is great, no question, but you should think twice and do lot`s 
of testing before, especially run-time tests.
rdiff-backup's "processing overhead" for each file is significant, so you 
may get into "timeslot trouble" if you have millions of small files.....

regards
roland


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael Simms" <address@hidden>
To: <address@hidden>
Sent: Friday, November 10, 2006 10:53 PM
Subject: [rdiff-backup-users] rdiff-backup for email


> Hello,
>
> I'm new to the list, and to rdiff-backup. We're looking at alternatives 
> for backing up email. It's currently 3TB, and growing quickly. Is anyone 
> out there backing up email, or other 'mission critical' data with 
> rdiff-backup?
>
> --
> Thanks,
>
> Michael Simms
> Computing and Networking Services
> University of Toronto
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> rdiff-backup-users mailing list at address@hidden
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> Wiki URL: 
> http://rdiff-backup.solutionsfirst.com.au/index.php/RdiffBackupWiki