[cobalt-users] Hypothetical Qube2 Disaster Recovery

[Malcolm McLeary <mim@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Guys,

I seek opinions for a backup solution for a Qube2 which will cover the 
worst case situation of complete disk failure.

Consider a typical customer who currently has a peer to peer W95 network 
and wants to install a Qube2 to be a file server, mail server, web 
server, and internet gateway.  

This small business has about 30 users and about 7Gb of corporate data 
... they chose an "off-the-shelf" configuration with 13Gb disk and 64Mb 
RAM.  They consolidate their distributed data into group shares on the 
Qube2.

Previously they were skating on thin ice with data everywhere and no 
backup strategy at all ... they have unreasonable faith in technology.

The Qube2 was chosen over other solutions for a number of reasons, in 
particular its "easy to manage" GUI as they don't have any dedicated IT 
staff.

Let us first consider the built-in backup facility ...

Let us assume that the disk dies, the disk is replaced and a restore CD 
is used to set it back to factory settings, or the Qube2 is replaced.  
Either way the Qube2 is back to where it was on day 1.

1.   How can the built-in backup facility be used with minimal day to day 
management such that when the worst case happens a full restore is 
possible and a maximum of one days data is "lost"?

2.   What is the RESTORE process after getting the "new" Qube2 powered up?

Let us now consider the more likely and most frequent problem ... some 
user files are corrupted or accidentally deleted.

1.   How can the built-in backup facility be used with minimal day to day 
management such that when files need to be recoved they can?

2.   What if the user needs a file from 3 weeks ago?

3.   What is the RESTORE process to recover these files from a backup?

I have opinions wrt these scenarios, but I'm keen to hear what other 
owners are doing.

Cheers,  Malcolm



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                       Information Alchemy Pty Ltd
                             ACN 089 239 305
                           Canberra, Australia

Malcolm McLeary                                  Mobile:   0412 636 086
Managing Director                                Email:  mim@xxxxxxxxxx

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