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Jan. 4th, 2009 11:51 pmI hadn't really read anything on Journalspace.com before, or used it, but it seems some people did. At any rate, they're now out of business, as detailed on this blog post by them - http://journalspace.com/this_is_the_way_the_world_ends/not_with_a_bang_but_a_whimper.html
Here is what happened: the server which held the journalspace data had two large drives in a RAID configuration. As data is written (such as saving an item to the database), it's automatically copied to both drives, as a backup mechanism.
Maybe you can see where this is going. But first..
*deep breath*
NO! BAD! YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG!
This is not a backup mechanism. This is a recipe for trouble, and nothing more. Whoever told you this was an acceptable way to backup your clients data is also an idiot. If you came up with it by yourself, you're even more of an idiot, because you don't know the limitations of your knowledge.. I wouldn't even be surprised if upon trying to replace a drive if this ever came up, you overwrote the drive with data on it, with the zeros from the new drive.
You, or someone you are paid to care about, are more likely to accidentally delete a file, than have your hard drive fail. This provides no protection for that, since drive A is a perfect mirror of drive B, warts and all.
(ObSysAdmin: What they should have done is spool off a transaction log, back up the transaction log, maybe have the log replayed into a secondary copy of the database, and then sync that database, and back it up. Or hired a DBA to set this up for them )
On backups, our christmas present to my mum this year was a 250GB WD Passport drive, and the suggestion she buys a second one (which she has done), and turning on Time Machine for them both. You should have your important data on at least three sets of storage, in at least two places.
Here is what happened: the server which held the journalspace data had two large drives in a RAID configuration. As data is written (such as saving an item to the database), it's automatically copied to both drives, as a backup mechanism.
Maybe you can see where this is going. But first..
*deep breath*
NO! BAD! YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG!
This is not a backup mechanism. This is a recipe for trouble, and nothing more. Whoever told you this was an acceptable way to backup your clients data is also an idiot. If you came up with it by yourself, you're even more of an idiot, because you don't know the limitations of your knowledge.. I wouldn't even be surprised if upon trying to replace a drive if this ever came up, you overwrote the drive with data on it, with the zeros from the new drive.
You, or someone you are paid to care about, are more likely to accidentally delete a file, than have your hard drive fail. This provides no protection for that, since drive A is a perfect mirror of drive B, warts and all.
(ObSysAdmin: What they should have done is spool off a transaction log, back up the transaction log, maybe have the log replayed into a secondary copy of the database, and then sync that database, and back it up. Or hired a DBA to set this up for them )
On backups, our christmas present to my mum this year was a 250GB WD Passport drive, and the suggestion she buys a second one (which she has done), and turning on Time Machine for them both. You should have your important data on at least three sets of storage, in at least two places.
