OT: Are your backups running?

[Jay Ashworth]

----- Original Message -----
> From: "Kenneth Brody" <kenbrody at spamcop.net>

> Ditto for a RAID controller that sends notices letting you know that one of
> the drives has failed. I know someone who had that happen, and no one saw
> (or cared enough to act on) the notifications. The RAID hardware did just
> what it was designed to do -- continued running without the safety net of
> that last drive, waiting for it to be replaced. Until, that is, a second
> drive failed many months later.

This is, incidentally, why the older DPT raid controllers had a Sonalert 
failure alarm *soldered to the board*.  On the earlier models, you could
not turn it off at all.  On later models, you could turn it off for a 
period of time, or til the next reboot; I forget which.

Since you should always have trayed disks, and an on-site spare for hardware
RAID, this shouldn't be a problem for you, of course.

But then, we all know that if you don't have a mirrored boot drive, everything
else RAID 1, 5, or preferably 6, spare hot-pluggable drives for everything,
and DLT or better tape, with enough tapes for an off-site backup, then you
simply aren't really trying to be in "business"; you're not serious about it.

I no longer take such clients, and I sleep better at night.

Cheers,
-- jra
-- 
Jay R. Ashworth                  Baylink                       jra at baylink.com
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