Baffling Backups

Welcome to Week 4!

Our assignments this week are all related to contingency planning.  This got me thinking about what to do for your home network that most people don't, backup your data.

Most operating systems have built in backup/restore programs, but there are many third-party programs as well.  Just like my recommendation last week for antivirus software, do your research and go with the option that works best for you.  I'm not here to tell you which program to use, just some methods to getting the job done!

If you are new to the backup game, here is some terminology to help you get started:

- Full backup - this is pretty self explanatory.  This will make a full and complete copy of all data to an alternate media.  Because this is the most complete type of backup, it is also the fastest in terms of recovery time.  Unfortunately, because the data is completely copied, it takes the longest to complete.

- Incremental backup - this backup type will only copy data that has changed since the last backup.  This is accomplished by comparing file time-stamps.  This process enables these backups to be run very quickly and are smaller in size.  When restoring, these backups follow the full in the order they were taken in to make sure the most up-to-date data is restored

- Differential backup - this backup is similar to the incremental with one difference; the differential backup copies all changed files since the last full backup.  As these backups are performed, they eliminate the need to restore the last differential.  This reduces the restore time, but increases the time and space needed to preform the backup.

Now that you know the terms, you need to set your schedule.  When I was a system administrator responsible for backups, I ran the following schedule:

- Friday - Full Backup
- Saturday and Monday through Thursday - Incremental Backup

Just because I was backing up on a good schedule, doesn't mean everything was great.  In the 2 years at that job, I only had to run a restore once...and fortunately for me, it worked.  My main failure was that I didn't test my own product.

Backing up data is useless if the restore doesn't work.  If you are backing up daily or weekly, validating your data will restore properly should happen every month or two.

The last point I'd like to make is about storing your backups.  Ideally, you should be able to store your backups in a different location than where the data is processed.  For home data, some possibilities are at a friends or family members house, a bank safe deposit box, or a cloud-based service.  If this is not possible for you to do, storing the backups in a fireproof safe (or similar product) is the next best thing.

Now, stop reading this and backup your data!


Some pages to reference:
http://searchdatabackup.techtarget.com/feature/Full-incremental-or-differential-How-to-choose-the-correct-backup-type
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/back-up-files
http://www.techradar.com/us/news/software/applications/best-free-backup-software-11-programs-we-recommend-1137924
http://data-backup-software-review.toptenreviews.com/
http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/10-things/10-outstanding-linux-backup-utilities/