Backup recommendation
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From: Nix on 21 Dec 2008 10:15 On 19 Dec 2008, Dave Liquorice verbalised: > On Fri, 19 Dec 2008 17:57:01 +0000, Ian Rawlings wrote: > >> Certainly, but there are people taking hints from this thread so best >> watch ourselves ;-) > > Aye, I'm going to play with rsync on my OS/2 workstation machine ! How do you keep that thing secure? (I suppose it gets some security from the fact that nobody will be trying attacks against OS/2 systems anymore...) I abandoned OS/2 twelve years ago when it became obvious it was dying. Isn't it completely dead by now? -- `We must stand together and fight for our shared cultural heritage as a group of people who cannot stand together to fight for our shared cultural heritage.' --- jspaleta on Balkan balkanization
From: Dave Liquorice on 21 Dec 2008 14:47 On Sun, 21 Dec 2008 15:15:11 +0000, Nix wrote: > How do you keep that thing secure? (I suppose it gets some security from > the fact that nobody will be trying attacks against OS/2 systems > anymore...) Well to all practical purposes there are no nasties out there for OS/2. It sits in a NAT'd private LAN with no external traffic allowed in (apart from stuff iniated inside of course...). Both my mail host and my server scans for nasties on all incoming mail. I don't frequent dubious web sites or use P2P. > I abandoned OS/2 twelve years ago when it became obvious it was dying. > Isn't it completely dead by now? Not here, it works is stable and does what I want, without all the annoying little things of windoze. eComstation, the 3rd party version of desktop OS/2 is alive and well. -- Cheers Dave.
From: Nix on 21 Dec 2008 16:44 On 21 Dec 2008, Dave Liquorice stated: > Both my mail host and my server > scans for nasties on all incoming mail. I don't frequent dubious web sites Don't you mean you *can't*? What e.g. web browser do you use? (Firefox across an X connection or something like that?) -- `We must stand together and fight for our shared cultural heritage as a group of people who cannot stand together to fight for our shared cultural heritage.' --- jspaleta on Balkan balkanization
From: Martin Gregorie on 21 Dec 2008 18:27 On Sun, 21 Dec 2008 15:13:20 +0000, Nix wrote: > I'd like to do something similar to this, only keeping it shut down > except when needed. I haven't paid any attention to hardware for nearly > a decade so I have no idea if this is possible, but is there a way to > automatically cut/restore power to something like this under software > control? (I know I could do it with a wall timer, but that can't be told > to turn *off* at the right time, so either it'll run for too long or cut > power in the middle of a backup!) > I'd suggest that this is an ideal use for 2.5" laptop drives, since they are built for a low daily duty cycle and the expectation of a lot of head take-offs and landings. It would be interesting to know what the spun- down current consumption of that type of USB drive is too. It should be under 3 watts spun up if it obeys the USB 2.0 rules. My 3.5" 120 GB WD unit looks bulky enough to contain a desktop drive and is powered by an external power brick. My backup script explicitly mounts the drive, does the backup and unmounts it. When the USB drive is mounted it spins up. If it isn't mounted it times out after a few minutes and spins down. Since days can go by between console logins, which of course force an automount and spin up, the drive is spun up for no more than 90 minutes per day. Of course the drive's power brick and its chassis electronics are powered up full time: I haven't thought of a way round that, though I suppose I could have used a timer socket so its only powered for 2-3 hours each night. I have never measured its wattage in idle and spun up states, so can't comment about power use, but at least drive wear should be minimised apart from head take-offs and landings. Its been operating this way since autumn 2005 with no sign of distress so far. -- martin@ | Martin Gregorie gregorie. | Essex, UK org |
From: Theo Markettos on 21 Dec 2008 18:01
Nix <nix-razor-pit(a)esperi.org.uk> wrote: > I'd like to do something similar to this, only keeping it shut down > except when needed. I haven't paid any attention to hardware for nearly > a decade so I have no idea if this is possible, but is there a way to > automatically cut/restore power to something like this under software > control? (I know I could do it with a wall timer, but that can't be told > to turn *off* at the right time, so either it'll run for too long or > cut power in the middle of a backup!) I think if you have an internal drive or an external SATA drive you can set it to spin down as required. If you have a drive in a USB case, most cases (ie the bridge chips) don't seem to pass through the spindown commands. The downside is that things keep spinning it back up again. noflushd helps, but I haven't succeeded it getting the thing to stay quiet all the time. Probably it would help if I dismounted it. I've been wondering about this server-wide... whether I can force the power switch line on the ATX PSU to forcibly switch it on or off. Should be feasible, I think (simple optoisolator to standby power or ground). I don't know if anyone makes switched DC outputs, but either a relay card or an external relay switched by a parallel port pin should be enough to switch the DC power to an external drive. Theo |