March, 2005 CCS News: Reminder: Don't Forget to Backup Your Computer

March, 2005

Reminder: Don’t Forget to Backup Your Computer

A temporary interruption like a computer crash or network outage is bothersome enough, but imagine losing all your data, and not having the means to recover it. Regular backups help ensure this won’t happen. Not only does it make good sense, the RPM also calls for regular backups.

RPM 9.02 states under Institutional Information:

“Systems that process or store institutional data...should be backed up on a regular schedule. The intervals between back-ups should be determined by the criticality and recoverability of the data and the frequency of update. Both software and data need to be backed up.”

Lab employees have the following backup options:

do it yourself (with varied reliability)
use one of ITSD’s reliable services (price list of services)
1. central service
2. SLA--service level agreement (If you’ve already invested in backup hardware, ITSD can run and monitor it for you.)

ITSD is looking for volunteers to migrate from the Connected backup service to the ITSD central service. Users who choose to stay with Connected face about a 10 percent failure rate, and high restoration costs. After half of the current Connected accounts have been migrated, we will be able to offer a lower rate of $10 for 3 gigabytes (plus $10/month fee) due to economies of scale.

If you are interested, email Chris Manders at CJManders@lbl.gov.