Data Backups

Contents

1. Overview
2. Purpose
3. Scope
4. Frequency
5. Method

1. Overview
   
   User data on computing facilities servers and certain other ECEnet workstations is backed up onto tape regularly.
2. Purpose
   
   The primary purpose for ECEnet data backups is to protect against data loss as a result of disk failure. While the CFS tries to honor requests to restore user files which have been accidentally removed or overwritten, we can act on such requests only as time permits. See the file restoration procedure FAQ for more information.
3. Scope
   
   All user data partitions on CFS servers and on supported faculty UNIX machines are on the backup schedule. You may view the complete list of hosts and filesystems on the backup schedule. If you notice a missing filesystem, please notify root immediately.
4. Frequency
   
   Backups run every weeknight. Most disks are backed up each night, however which disks are backed up and at which level (full or incremental) is decided by our backup software. A full backup for each filesystem is guaranteed to happen at least once every two weeks. All other backups performed during that period are incremental. See below.
5. Method
   
   Backups start at 8pm weeknights and run until a tape is filled. Approximately once or twice every two weeks a full backup is performed on each disk partition on the backup schedule. On other nights, incremental backups are performed on each partition. (Incremental backups copy any files that have changed since the last full backup.) There are enough tapes so that backups go back up to about 6 months. Each month, tapes containing 3-month-old backups are safely and securely stored offsite. This is a disaster-recovery technique.

Please refer to the CFS file restoration procedure if you need a critical file restored from backups.

Important note: Please bear in mind that the file restoration service is intended as a disaster recovery mechanism only. It may only be used for restoration of data that is deemed absolutely critical.

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Copyright © 2003 Northwestern University § All rights reserved § Thu Oct 23 11:28:43 CDT 2003