Protecting data...
 

Okay this is the deal. I have a Linux fileserver (running Gentoo 2004.3) with 2 harddrives in a software RAID-1 array. My system is running Samba 3 to share the data on the RAID over the LAN. Pretty standard situation.

Well, this is the problem. RAID-1 of course protects data loss in case of some hardware failures, but that's it. If I accidentally delete data or so, there's no way my RAID-1 protects me from that.

So here's my question: are there any techniques or whatsoeverthingiemabobs ;) that do a better job on protecting data from all kinds of harm?

RAID wasn't intended for full data protection.. a good backup setup was.

Think of it this way.. RAID is great when you have a hardware failure, makes it really easy to replace and have your machine back up and running in no time without a big loss of downtime..

Backups are meant to protect yourself and your users. Person A deletes a very important file, hopefully you have a good backups to retrieve that file. RAID protects hardware mainly.. Backups protect you from the dumb users who might delete data or do something else that was considered dumb.. ;)

Yeah I know...

Thing is that I really don't feel like backing up 200Gb on a daily base or so... too expensive.

I just found out about Samba 3's recycle bin functionality, I'll be looking into that!

Do you really need to backup the full 200GB daily???

Well a part of the data is quite statical, but it differs from day to day..!

I think Samba's recycle bin option is just fine, although I can't quite figure out how to get it to work!

It's called.. differential backups each day or other day along with weekly or monthly full backups..

Ask yourself this then.. can you really afford to lose one byte or all of the given data? Backups can cost money but they end up saving money in the long run. It's like insurance, better to have it than not to have it.

And last time I checked.. drive space is cheap and or getting a cheap backup tape setup. If this is your own home setup, I can see why you wouldn't care as often but if its not only you that depends on this data or part of a business, well, data protection is very important.