Special RAID 1 with offsite backup?

In order to ditch tape backups, here's what we're trying to accomplish but am a bit confused on how to do it most easily: I want to set up drives 1 and 2 for onsite data redundancy, and use drive 3 with a pair of harddrive trays for offsite backup. (one always in bay 3, the other always offsite, with a weekly switch back and forth taking place.)
Would this be the appropriate way to accomplish this?
1. set up xserve drive bays 1 and 2 as mirrors. (raid 1 - this part I can do just fine)
2. use a drive cloning program to create a snapshot of drive 1 into drive 3, and then take drive 3 out and take it offsite, and then every week just redo the cloning process?

That will work. Just remember to unmount drive3 before removing it.
I do something like this on a daily basis. I run my root drive as just a drive. In the morning after I've checked logs I clone it to the drive in the middle bay and the drive in the right bay. I send the right drive offsite. In the evening, after the root drive has had it's important changes I clone it to the other drives again. BTW, I do these clones while the machine is being used.
A RAID 1, while giving you up to the millisecond backup, also will have up to the millisecond mistakes, that may need to be restored from backup. Cloning them like I do does mean the clone is behind, but I have the version before the mistake was made. It's individual choice.
Roger

Similar Messages

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    hello, thanks for taking a look at my post.
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    ...does time capsule have an option to backup to mobile me?, or any other off-site storage?
    No for both questions.
    Time Capsule itself doesn't do any backups. Time Machine on each individual Mac is actually what performs the backup to the Time Capsule.

  • RAID for offsite backup?

    Hello! My question is not specific to Xserve, but the OSX software RAID provided by Disk Utility. I posted on the 10.6.2 installation and setup board, but was recommended that I post here instead. So here goes...
    I'm planning to use 2 external drives with Time Machine. But I only plan to keep one of them always connected to my iMac and the other stored somewhere safe (connecting periodically to sync up). The reasons being the usual ones for an offsite backup. And need I say that one of my computers has also been the unfortunate victim of a lightning strike? Ouch!
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    Don't go there. Seriously.
    Breaking a mirror should never be considered part of your normal workflow, but that's precisely what you're proposing here - periodically breaking the mirror to take one of the copies off-site.
    It might not bring you seven years' bad luck but it is asking for trouble.
    IMHO your best bet is to periodically clone the Time Machine disk to the second disk using Disk Utility.app, asr or any of the numerous disk clone apps out there (Carbon Copy Cloner, Synchronize Pro, etc.).
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  • Pegasus RAID Storage with Thunderbolt opinions / backup solutions?

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    You can (re-)install to the Pegasus raid and boot from it.
    However, you'll actually get a faster system if you use an SSD for the system drive and then just use the Pegasus for data files (and Time Machine backups of the SSD ...).
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  • Informal poll: breaking raid as offsite backup

    this isn't specific to os x server, but i was wondering what other people think about breaking a mirrored raid (external or internal hot swap) and swapping in a spare as a means of providing easy offsite backup.
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    The following discussion has a lot of good information you may want to read:
    http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6266460
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  • Please help me with some backup questions....

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    SuperDuper:  I was just checking them out and it seems that it's not only a good cloner, but will also then keep that clone up to date and bootable on a regular basis.  It really sounds like it's what I need.  And the screen shots I saw on their site seem pretty well thought out and explain a lot.
    Carbon Copy Cloner:  I know this app has been around for a long time, though I've never used it.  I'm presuming it's good for cloning a drive onto a larger drive, just as SuperDuper is, but can it do scheduled backups of that clone like SuperDuper can? 
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    And finally, a last question or two:
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    And has anyone had any experience with G-Technology's G-Safe with RAID 1? 
    Thanks much for all your help. 
    Oh, here's my system:  Mac Pro tower, 2008 2.8 GHz, 10 GB ram.  Dual Intel processors.  Currently 10.5.8, soon to be 10.6.8. 

    valbelvalbel wrote:
    After suffering through two hard drive failures (not my main drive, fortunately), and being frustrated with trying to keep everything backed up, I'm taking a fresh approach to everything and I plan to do the following:
    1.  Purchase a new, 2 TB hard drive (enterprise class - Can you guys recommend a reliable one?) and clone my existing main hard drive to it.
    2.  Purchase a second identical drive and install it in bay #2.
    3.  Likely purchase G-Technology's G-Safe with Raid 1 capability.  Likely 3 TB just cause.
    4.  I'll keep my current 1 TB Hitachi Deskstar in the 3rd bay.  It serves only my Sonos music system.  (I wanted a separate drive for that so my regular drives weren't always running.)
    Hitachi and Seagate both make enterprise class drives. Just visit their websites to find models.
    So far so good.  I plan on putting all my files on the one main 2 TB drive.  (Formerly roughly 500 GB of music was on a separate internal drive, the one that's died twice now. Seagate Barracuda FYI.)  I'll then clone the main drive to the identical drive in the 2nd bay and make it bootable as well.  That's backup #1 and I plan on having it also updated regularly.  (Incrementally, not a complete erase and rewrite, but still keeping it bootable.)  I'll then hook up the Raid 1 drive and clone the main hard drive to that as well, also making it bootable.  That will give me backup #2 and #3 (through mirroring).  These drives will be backed up less often and when not being used, will be stored in a fire proof safe in the garage.  So far so good, I think.
    I don't know what your desires are for backup redundancy, but I would create a two drive mirrored RAID for your main backup. This could consist of two identical hard drives mounted in your Mac Pro's slots (this is what I do.) Or you could purchase a two-drive external case and use Firewire. (I also do this.) Drive size should be determined by how large a drive(s) you are backing up and if you plan to use Time Machine. TM's backup device must be at least twice the size of the drive(s) it backs up.
    What I'm stuck on is what software to use for doing the cloning and more importantly, the backups.
    For the cloning, I understand I can simply use the Restore function in the Disk Utility.  Is this correct?  Or am I better off using SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner?  If so, which one?  And why?
    For the regular backups, I have been using Retrospect but frankly, I'm less than impressed with their interface and I've never liked the fact that even if the backups aren't compressed, I can't see the files unless I do so through Retrospect.  I can't just go to the backup drive and view the files.  They're all hidden in the one Retrospect icon.  So, I'm considering the following:
    Time Machine:  However, I was less than impressed with it in the past as it seemed to completely fill whatever drive I pointed it to and then it would fail to backup.  I never could figure it out that well. 
    SuperDuper:  I was just checking them out and it seems that it's not only a good cloner, but will also then keep that clone up to date and bootable on a regular basis.  It really sounds like it's what I need.  And the screen shots I saw on their site seem pretty well thought out and explain a lot.
    Carbon Copy Cloner:  I know this app has been around for a long time, though I've never used it.  I'm presuming it's good for cloning a drive onto a larger drive, just as SuperDuper is, but can it do scheduled backups of that clone like SuperDuper can? 
    And in all cases, I want to keep both the second internal drive and the external RAID drives backed up from their original clonings.  Can any of these programs handle ongoing backups to two or more destinations from the same source?
    If you are running Lion then do not use SuperDuper. It has not yet been updated for reliable use with Lion and cannot handle Lion's Recovery HD. Carbon Copy Cloner's recent beta release would be a good choice as would Synk Pro from Decimus, or Tri-Backup.  All of these will clone a drive as well as perform scheduled backups/updates of a clone. But only CCC properly deals with Lion's Recovery HD at this time. All of these make essentially file by file copies from the source to the destination. One can easily restore a file or a few items without needing to use the backup utility since everything on the backup is accessible through the Finder.
    TM is not able to create a bootable clone. It is an archival backup utility intended for home users needing basic, automatic, and simple to use backup software. Restoring software from a TM backup can only be done through the TM application.
    And finally, a last question or two:
    To repeat my first question, who makes a really reliable enterprise class drive? 
    And has anyone had any experience with G-Technology's G-Safe with RAID 1? 
    Thanks much for all your help. 
    Oh, here's my system:  Mac Pro tower, 2008 2.8 GHz, 10 GB ram.  Dual Intel processors.  Currently 10.5.8, soon to be 10.6.8. 

  • How do I create an Oracle 10g offsite backup

    Total size of the datafiles that make up the tablespaces of the DB = 1532121.6875 Mb
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    I used the following query to determine the above size:
    SELECT sum(bytes/1048576) FROM dba_extents; I saw this question poseted on another site
    QUESTION POSED ON: 15 August 2007
    I recently handled a project whereby we have many site servers at various places in our country and there is a central server in Delhi (India). My project is to take a backup of the local server and post that backup to the central server via Internet. I chose the RMAN (Recovery Manager) approach. Using that approach I can back up the database and connect to the remote database. But I can't find how to post the backup to the remote server. Please give me guidance regarding this project.
    This was the answer:
    EXPERT RESPONSE
    Basically, there are two options to have RMAN back up to a remote server. One, back up locally and then FTP the backup to the remote server. Two, create a network file share from the database server to the remote server. Have RMAN back up to the network file share. It will think the file system is local, but in actuality, the file system is in another location.
    Currently a level 1 incremental backup is done at 10:00PM every night to the array (this takes approximately 1 hour to be completed). I am interested in doing a full hot offsite backup of the DB to a disk on another server.
    Can anyone tell me how would I be able to do this using RMAN and/or backing locally and then FTP'ing the backup to a remote sever.
    Can anyone also confirm if the calculation for the size of the DB is accurate?
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    MY CURRENT RMAN CONFIGS
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    CONFIGURE RETENTION POLICY TO REDUNDANCY 1;                                   
    CONFIGURE BACKUP OPTIMIZATION OFF; # default                                  
    CONFIGURE DEFAULT DEVICE TYPE TO DISK; # default                              
    CONFIGURE CONTROLFILE AUTOBACKUP ON;                                          
    CONFIGURE CONTROLFILE AUTOBACKUP FORMAT FOR DEVICE TYPE DISK TO '%F'; # default
    CONFIGURE DEVICE TYPE DISK PARALLELISM 2 BACKUP TYPE TO BACKUPSET;            
    CONFIGURE DATAFILE BACKUP COPIES FOR DEVICE TYPE DISK TO 1; # default         
    CONFIGURE ARCHIVELOG BACKUP COPIES FOR DEVICE TYPE DISK TO 1; # default       
    CONFIGURE MAXSETSIZE TO UNLIMITED; # default                                  
    CONFIGURE ENCRYPTION FOR DATABASE OFF; # default                              
    CONFIGURE ENCRYPTION ALGORITHM 'AES128'; # default                            
    CONFIGURE ARCHIVELOG DELETION POLICY TO NONE; # default                       
    CONFIGURE SNAPSHOT CONTROLFILE NAME TO '/opt/oracle/product/10.2.0/dbs/snapcf_MYSID.f'; # default########################################
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    Oracle Database 10g Enterprise Edition Release 10.2.0.3.0 - 64bi
    PL/SQL Release 10.2.0.3.0 - Production
    CORE 10.2.0.3.0 Production
    TNS for Solaris: Version 10.2.0.3.0 - Production
    NLSRTL Version 10.2.0.3.0 - Production
    Recovery Manager: Release 10.2.0.3.0 - Production
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    SunFire E2900 Server with Sun Storage Tek 6140

    Thanks for the help, I took a look at the script. Suppose however I didn't/couldn't do any modification of the Oracle RMAN settings (without voiding my support contract). Could I simply copy the necessary DB files to a remote server, would I be able to do a restore (if necessary) from those copied files?
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    [....I am also working on updating the support contract ]

  • Raid 1 with two external drives

    Hi Everyone,
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    Cheers,
    Scott

    scotty morrison wrote:
    These drives will be used to store Masters and dailies from photo and video shoots and well as the final edits from those shoots, so id qualify them as "mission critical".
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  • Which is better, Raid 0 with two hdds or 1 ssd?

    Hi,
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    I understood what the hard-drive-in-optibay meant.  Regardless, it's still two platter-based hard drives versus an SSD.  An SSD will be faster in your situation.  If you had a lot of platter-drives in RAID0 and you had some sort of hardware based RAID controller with battery-backed cache, then maybe, possible, potentially, that (really expensive) platter-based RAID0 could be as fast as a SSD.  You don't have that and can't put that in a notebook, so it ain't gonna happen for you.
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    In your situation, you can't separate the OS and data onto separate RAID arrays, so in general, RAID0 is NOT what you want, regardless of whether you use SSDs or platter-based hard drives.  But again, only you can determine how much risk and cost you're willing to gamble with.

  • Raid 0 With Internal And External Different Size Drives??

    So I want to setup a raid 0 with my computer setup but have some questions.
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    So basically I setup my iMacs drive and my external 1TB drive as a raid 1 and it will write the data to both drives at the same time right?
    Correct.
    Will this slow anything down at all?
    Yes.
    I gave up on TM myself.
    Get carbon copy cloner to make an exact copy of your old HD to the New one...
    http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html
    Or SuperDuper...
    http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/
    Or the most expensive one & my favorite, Tri-Backup...
    http://www.tri-edre.com/english/tribackup.html

  • Best way to do offsite backups of iMac?

    I have a new iMac -- the first Mac for a longtime Windows user...
    One of my normal practices with the PC was to create an offsite backup each month, which is stored in my desk at work. In the past, I've always used DVDs for the backup, but now that my iTunes and digital photo libraries are growing, that's getting to be too much of a chore and requires too many disks to do easily. So, I'd like to start doing my offsite on a portable hard drive I can store in the office and just take home once a month for the backups.
    I'm already using Time Machine to back up my iMac to a G-Tech external hard drive, but for the offsite backup, I'd prefer to only back up my iTunes library, photos, and documents. I don't see a way to do that with Time Machine.
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    ecd1211, Welcome to the discussion area!
    I'd prefer to only back up my iTunes library, photos, and documents. I don't see a way to do that with Time Machine.
    You can customize Time Machine to only do the folders you want.
    In Time Machine preferences, Choose Backup Disk, then click Options. A list of locations that are backed up appears.
    To add a new "do not back up" location to the listing, click the "+" button below the list, navigate to the location you want to exclude and click Exclude.
    To delete a listing, select that listing and click the "-" button.
    Click Done to return to Time Machine preferences.
    Drag the Time Machine OFF-ON slider to turn Time Machine on or off.
    KB 306681, Mac 101: Using Time Machine in Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard

  • Best method for incremental offsite backups?

    I currently have multiple Macs and a Windows PC running XP.  I also have a 1TB Time Capsule, so all the Macs are backed up via Time Machine.  However, I want to have offsite backups as well, so I purchased 2 matching Seagate GoFlex 3TB drives.  My plan was to backup up verything, then have one drive offsite and another at home away from the computers.
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    Message was edited by: BobHarris

  • Development System Backup - Best Practice / Policy for offsite backups

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    Skotty wrote:
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