Dedicated Server Backup

[Matt]

Well that's not entirely true. If the backups start at 2 AM then each individual account is backed up, one at a time and if the load exceeds a certain amount, the process sleeps for a bit to let the load go down. Once the loads are acceptable again, the process resumes.

So the spreading out that you describe is automated more than anything.

[andychev]

Well that's not entirely true. If the backups start at 2 AM then each individual account is backed up, one at a time and if the load exceeds a certain amount, the process sleeps for a bit to let the load go down. Once the loads are acceptable again, the process resumes.

So the spreading out that you describe is automated more than anything.

Super, so really im worrying about nothing! Time for a very english cup of tea!

[bdominick]

There are third party backup providers that do what Andychev is talking about. It's actually the industry standard for them, and it's really expensive. I've set up these services before for clients. One place I used that is relatively well-priced and quite reliable (at least it has been for me) is Data Protection Services Online Backup, Remote Online Backup, Secure Online Backup Services

At the end of your first month, their standard service would have on hand 7 dailies, 3 weeklies (they keep the 7th daily as a weekly) and a monthly (the last weekly, I believe), and they collect 12 monthlies across the year. These are full backups, and you customize very precisely what you want backed up. Their software encrypts and compresses the backup package on your server (only you have the pw -- they don't even know it), then transfers it over SSL to their first site, then a second site gets a redundant copy (they're in New Orleans, so this came in handy for us during Katrina, actually). Oh, and you manage the whole thing via client software on one local machine. So I have a program on my laptop right now that securely (and efficiently) manages the backup services for 5 remote Windows servers. I assume this is the same for their Linux offerings.

But this all starts at like $90/month, for like a Gig, and goes up, sharply, from there, depending on how much data you need backed up. The funny thing is, they only charge by the amount of data you're backing up, not by the total storage you're using on their end, which makes a big difference. Anyway, if I had the money, I'd definitely go for something like that, but that was when I was dealing with clients who had highly sensitive data and pretty substantial amounts of it, at that, like e-commerce sites -- and I was spending THEIR money.

It would be REALLY nice to have a few extra dailies, though -- in most cases, I've needed backups because a problem is discovered a couple or three days after it occurs. Going back a whole week would sometimes be really daunting. But such are the perils of poverty. Will there really be no way for me to store more than one daily on my second drive? I would actually rather have dailies than weeklies, if I had to pick...