RE: [cobalt-users] Hypothetical Qube2 Disaster Recovery

["Jeff Newman" <mjeffn@xxxxxxxx>]

I have several clients now who use the cube for many of the same
reasons...except I don't let them use it for file storage.  The liturature
makes it sound great, but the reality is that smtp, pop and http protocols
are good targets for hackers to exploite, not to mention NetBIOS.  The
qube's "firewall" with a deny-all-except might add 10 minutes to the time it
would take for a knowledgeable hacker to breach.  To much exposure for any
level of comfort.

I mostly recommend the device as an email only, or email/simple firewall
solution.  I never recomend that they run the SMB service or use the box for
W9x authentication.  This is kind of like storing the cookie jar at eye
level to a 6 year old and, leaving the lid open to boot.

Solution, put the cube in a DMZ such as the Sonicwall-DMZ or the Watchguard
II and use it as a way that the customer doesn't have to partner with their
ISP for a critical application such as email.  Now for file storage, since
they like the simple GUI approach, they should use depending on their
budget, either the Snap server of the Procom NetForce 100.  (go to
www.procom.com, you'll see what I mean)  The mirrored snaps are about $2,500
street and the NF100's start at about $4800 street.

Just use regular old network backup unless you have one of the bigger
NF100's.  In that case you can attach an AIT drive or library (since the
NF100's go up to 150Gb native) directly to the back of the unit and use its
GUI for backup.

WOW! A small business windows network without NT server or license costs!  I
do NT as an app server only now.  NT is really good at apps, but it's not
such a great file server.  You always hear bitchin about NT not scaleing up,
well for those of us who spend most of our time trying to make small
business clients happy that they know us, NT DOES NOT SCALE DOWN VERY
WELL...PERIOD!

Finally, there is another way to do it.

Here, you can have the soap box back.  I get carried away sometimes.  Must
my ADHD shining through! :)

jeff


-----Original Message-----
From: cobalt-users-admin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:cobalt-users-admin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Malcolm McLeary
Sent: Friday, March 03, 2000 9:56 PM
To: Cobalt Users
Subject: [cobalt-users] Hypothetical Qube2 Disaster Recovery


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



. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

                       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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