Liberty Bella 🗽🏳️‍⚧️Dec 24, 2022
nixCraft 🐧

7 things all kids need to hear

1 I love you

2 I'm proud of you

3 I'm sorry

4 I forgive you

5 I'm listening

6 RAID is not backup. Make offsite backups. Verify backup. Find out restore time. Otherwise, you got what we call Schrödinger backup

7 You've got what it takes

Nov 22, 2022 at 4:22amWeb
Show threadErtainNov 22, 2022
@nixCraft You are correct. Children should hear these sentences.
Show threadstevenfuzzNov 22, 2022
@nixCraft screw it kids, we're going raid 0! Here's a lesson about fault tolerance.
Show threadDasNov 22, 2022
@stevenfuzz @nixCraft My favourite saying is "It's called RAID 0 because that's exactly the amount of RAID you have, zero"
Show threadstevenfuzzNov 22, 2022
@das @nixCraft back in the day I built a music recording rig. Back when hardrives were slow. I rocked raid 0.
Show threadMark HarrisNov 22, 2022
@nixCraft I once was new IT mgr for a place. We had a sysadmin who did nightly backups on tape and stored the tapes in the fireproof safe as per regs. This was my first time running WinNT (loong ago, now) so I read all the manuals I could find. I casually asked her if we verified the backups, as I saw that was an option. You could feel the eyeroll from Antarctica, but she dutifully went to the safe and got last night's backup and inserted it to verify. Nada. 8 months of nada in the firesafe 1/2
Show threadMark HarrisNov 22, 2022

@nixCraft Turned out there was a fault in the backup unit that didn't raise a flag. Verifying would show that it hadn't worked, but no-one had told her to do that and she didn't like Windows enough to find out the details. They'd gone straight from DOS to NT and the install contractors were incompetent. I've never seen rolling eyes go quite so wide as tape after tape proved to be blank.

#backups

Show threadMike LittleNov 22, 2022
@nzlemming @nixCraft Years ago, I used a DOS program that did its own backups to floppies (this was around 1988). When it came time to restore, I discovered it had an overflow bug once you got past 32k records! Spent 2 days writing code (in Turbo Pascal) to fix bits in the backup files so I could restore! Also, it was EBCDIC encoded!!!
Show threadRobot TaylorNov 22, 2022

@nzlemming @nixCraft

Finding out the backups had a glitch only when you’re depending on them to recover from disaster is brutal.

Happened with tape — happens with Public Cloud!

We had a yearly full Disaster Recovery exercise for a service depending on CosmosDB. Restore took 10 days(!). Azure had a glitch with restoring Mongo API 3.2 CosmosDB accounts, which was only discovered during our test.

It’s remediated! But also shows WE ALL MUST TEST RESTORES, even of managed services.

Show threadFirehorseart Lives!Nov 22, 2022

@rjamestaylor @nzlemming @nixCraft
@idanoo

Oooh an online IT Crowd episode, heh 😂

I've worked in IT Support but as a programmer / analyst /designer. I'm always glad to avoid being at the sharp end of system recovery.

I'll add a tale I heard in my 1st job -

The IT bod went to get the backups for a failed system. They asked the office admin for the (floppy) disks and were handed a ring-binder. The disks had been neatly filed by punching holes through the covers!

 

Show threadMark HarrisNov 22, 2022
@rjamestaylor @nixCraft Yup yup yup.
Show thread@faktoiderNov 22, 2022
@nzlemming @nixCraft At one place something had crashed. They asked me to restore from a backup because they only knew - or so they thought - how to.make them, not to restore from them. No problem; daily BU on a tape station, plenty of tapes well marked. The station didn't respond. When I took a look at it, it almost fell from the shelf. It wasn't connected to the server.
Show threadNYEarthlingNov 23, 2022

@nzlemming @nixCraft

@nzlemming, what backup software was it? I'm from the days of Arcserve and BackupExec (are they even still around?) Thank the gods we can do automated restores these days to test the jobs!

Show threadMark HarrisNov 23, 2022
@NYEarthling @nixCraft Argh, 25 years ago, I have no memory of it.
Show threadmrs.summer.campNov 22, 2022

@nzlemming @nixCraft

Oops!

Show threadJamesDec 17, 2022

@nzlemming @nixCraft

I can't top the backup stories but I have one as an end-user.

I worked for a small company associated with the remainder of the RCA military div and IT insisted on maintaining the same security for both firms although 99.9% of our work was commercial.

My work updated files and I had to check older copies. I knew our system worked from prior projects. So I'm checking an active project: last file version 6 months. Our daily backup failed 6 months ago. No one noticed.

Show threadproject_kmacNov 22, 2022
@nixCraft if your dad never tells you 6, did he ever really love you?
Show threadStaceNov 22, 2022
@nixCraft Schrödinger's backup🤣 brilliant analogy.
Show threadAndrew🇺🇦Nov 22, 2022
@_intothevoid @nixCraft And its close cousin, what my old boss called WOM: Write Only Memory.
Show threadNick 'The Viking'Nov 22, 2022

@nixCraft

Strong work that's very nice! 🤣

Schrödinger backup, I was not aware of this term yet it's everywhere. 😁

Show threadPreston de Guise 🏳️‍🌈✍🏼Nov 22, 2022
@nixCraft Also, if you *do* say "RAID is backup" three times in a datacentre, I appear behind you and start shrieking.
Show threadDamonHDNov 22, 2022
@backupbear @nixCraft Oh that was YOU was it? I really was only joking, but you gave the security guard a nasty moment...
Show threadLeoBurrNov 22, 2022
@nixCraft If only more folks understood the difference between high availability and a real, tiered backup strategy.
Show threadBaabaliciousNov 22, 2022
@nixCraft 8 Bacula is free, even though it's named after penis bones.
Show threadRobert BurneNov 22, 2022
@nixCraft 6 really speaks to me. I wish my parents had taught me about RAID when I was small but they stuck to strange things like “Mathematics” and “English” #Sad
Show threadJon PNov 22, 2022
@nixCraft particularly #6
Show thread[email protected]Nov 22, 2022
@nixCraft Cloud services are not backups either. They're just someone else's RAID
Show threadhelmingstayNov 22, 2022
@nixCraft
^Winning^
Doesn't fit in one line, but there's also **The Talk** (when they're a bit older, of course):
https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/the-talk-3
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - The Talk

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - The Talk

Show threadMagikal SamanthaNov 22, 2022
@nixCraft shadow legends
Show threadMorgana Le FayNov 22, 2022
@nixCraft Couldn't agree more! Plus, Schrödinger's backup is a brilliant analogy!
Show threadSimon WaightNov 22, 2022
@nixCraft that escalated quickly…
Show threadNerdShinobiNov 22, 2022
@nixCraft not sure if kids, or VPs....
Show threadAlaskanEliseNov 22, 2022
@nixCraft 🤣So true!
Show threadChristie DudleyNov 22, 2022
@nixCraft I had a friend who put all her wedding pictures on a raid thinking they would be safe. One drive failed. OK, replace it. The replacement drive was incompatible and caused cascading failures with the other drives. Everything was gone.
Show threadBardMoss the Bodhi Linux GuyNov 22, 2022
@nixCraft
8. Backups = Backups -1
(If you have one backup, you will find you have no backups)
Show threadAlinaXNov 22, 2022
@nixCraft
Thank you for No. 6. I need to hear it.
Show threadJimmy Sjölund 🇸🇪 🇫🇮 🇪🇺 🇺🇦 🇬🇱Nov 22, 2022
@nixCraft What about password managers?
Show threadMatthew VernonNov 22, 2022
@nixCraft 6a) Restore costs extra ;-)
Show threadCalum Andrew MorrellNov 22, 2022
@nixCraft 6 being the most important of all. Right behind "ide raid is NOT raid!"
Show threadMatt MackNov 22, 2022

@nixCraft

8 Excel is not a database

Show threadGraeme Bell Jan 4, 2023
@matthras @nixCraft
8.1 Excel is not a Word Processor.
8.2 Excel is not a Calculator.
8.3 Excel is a fantastic tool when used correctly.
8.3.1 No-one outside of Microsoft's Excel team uses Excel correctly.
8.3.1.1 And only one guy in that team. They retire next month.
Show threadDigitalStefanNov 22, 2022

@nixCraft CrashplanPro is absolutely wonderful at letting you send them data to be backed up.

The two times I've needed to use it, restore times were unreasonably long. Not because of large data, but because data transfer was <0.5MB/s the entire time.

Caveat: This was ~3 years ago.

It *did* work, though.

Show threadDamiano GerliNov 22, 2022
@nixCraft 8. you know what's important on the internet? privacy. that is why I have partnered with ExpressVPN to bring you this once in a lifetime deal to protect your privacy
Show threadwaverleyNov 22, 2022
@nixCraft brightened my day!
Show threadRoadskater, Ph.D.Nov 22, 2022
@nixCraft 6. Also. All that Python 3 stuff that installed without complaint three years ago. Sorry, new box with new op system🙀.
Show threadRob ShorttNov 22, 2022
@nixCraft 8 You look with your eyes not your hands. Put it down!!!
Show threadMynacolNov 22, 2022

@nixCraft
On a past Chaos Communication Congress I found the sticker:

No Backup, No Mercy

(translated, original German: Kein Backup, Kein Mitleid)

Show threadপ্রোনয় মুখরজীNov 22, 2022
@nixCraft 6 is an anomaly
Show threadAndrewNov 22, 2022
@nixCraft you missed one. "Don't share passwords"
Show threadCastitatis Lilium Nov 22, 2022
@puck @nixCraft “minimum 20 characters and no dictionary words”
Show threadAndrewNov 22, 2022
@Pygoscelisadeliae @nixCraft I had to have that conversation with my teenage daughter last year. You know the one. Password strength and not sharing passwords.
Show threadMarkNov 22, 2022
@nixCraft #6 chortle 🤭
Show threadDaXNov 22, 2022
@nixCraft hahaha i didn’t expect this
Show thread💉💉💉💉 Sean Houlihane 🕷️🔶Nov 22, 2022
@nixCraft back in the days of using VHS tapes for backup, I remember my father needing to use a backup on a system he was installing. If I recall correctly, only the 1st 10% of the job had run (every week). Only lost a few days work.
Show threadAaron JohnsonNov 22, 2022
@nixCraft RAID confuses the heck out of me so forgive my naive question: isn't striped RAID (RAID 5?) Kind of a back up?
Show threadjp10558Nov 22, 2022
@rexmundi71 @nixCraft Nope, RAID isn't a backup. If the array dies, you don't have another copy anywhere. If you get ransomwared, you don't have another copy anywhere.
Show threadGraeme Bell Jan 4, 2023

@rexmundi71 @nixCraft No. What we mean by a backup is enough information to replicate a system if it gets completely trashed.

So, if a system is destroyed by flood-fire-earthquake-idiot etc, the sysadmin can swap in a new one and load the backup onto it, with minimal loss of data.

No RAID system will survive this level of destruction. It doesn't matter how the data is arranged, any redundancy within the array is irrelevant when the entire array is gone.

RAID is lovely, but it isn't a backup.

Show threadMike HillNov 22, 2022
@nixCraft There's a storage industry saying, "If you don't have three copies of something, it doesn't exist."
Show threadAlineHayesNov 22, 2022
@nixCraft No6 is excellent advice tho!
Show threadRicardo HarvinNov 22, 2022
@nixCraft All the basics 👍🏿
Show threadJavier AlvarezNov 22, 2022

@nixCraft

Maybe 8:

Never push your dotfiles with your cloud credentials to GitHub