hi Lisa/team
I'm also new, so apologies for 'jumping in' but I wanted to voice a
recommendation that for permanent retention needs you add complete
replication or archive (archive app) outside of "backup" to your
process. Backup is not an archive. There are compelling reasons to
consider having both a backup and archive copy. 

Data stored by a backup application, is meant for that application.  The
application understands where data is, and can minimize media swapping
during a recovery operation.  However, when data is stored for long-term
active archival, the creating application of the archive copy is often
not the accessing application. That is, data stored by an archival
function, or a file system view is easily accessible by users, and other
applications.   This is useful for things like fixity validation. 
(Though in general you wouldn't run a validation on an entire tape
store, but you could/should run statistical samples to get a good feel
that the media is readable and in good condition.) 


Archive copies can be accomplished by either using an archive
application or doing a replication from the storage layer to either
cloud (preservation cloud such as DuraSpace) or to remote disk. I
personally like either option since they are both quite do-able for
10-20TB of data.


For the purposes of this discussion, if you want to use tape for both
backup and archive, I would recommend consider using a standards-based
archive application to create an archive copy to off-line/near-line
media (such as tape). Use partitioning to allow the backup and the
archive applications to both use the tape library.


I'm happy to defend these positions ;-) or debate accordingly with the
rest on the team - 
Gail

 
Gail Truman
Truman Technologies, LLC
www.trumantechnologies.com
facebook/TrumanTechnologies
 
510 502 6497
 



-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [NDSA-INFRASTRUCTURE] Backup Frequency in Practice
From: "Schmidt, Lisa (lschmidt)" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tue, August 28, 2012 7:11 am
To: [log in to unmask]

Hello,
I'm an electronic records archivist at the Michigan State University
Archives, new to this list. Unfortunately, I will not be on the call
this afternoon due to another meeting, but I am hoping to make it to
future calls.

We are developing the Spartan Archive preservation environment for
electronic institutional records with permanent retention, and I have a
"due diligence" question to pose to the group.

The MSU Archives wishes to ensure that we are following best/good
practices in backing up the Spartan Archive, 10-20 TB of space that
includes preservation masters, access copies, and a processing area.

How frequently are you backing up your preservation repositories? Is the
standard recommended daily incremental/weekly full backup happening in
practice?

Thank you!

Lisa Schmidt

____________________________________________________

Lisa M. Schmidt
Electronic Records Archivist
University Archives & Historical Collections
888 Wilson Road
Room 101 , Conrad Hall
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824

[log in to unmask]
1-517-884-6441


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