I'm running a Slack 10.1 server with some critical apps/data that i can't afford to lose at any given time for more then an hour. Right now the only method of backup that i have is rsync and offline backups of my critical data. Although, in the case of something like a disk failure right now i'd be out for a day (which i really can't afford). I started reading up on doing a RAID array for redundancy, but it sounded quite complex.

Basically what i need is some suggestions for disaster recovery to get me back up and going ASAP in the case of a disk failure.

- RJ

Sounds like a job for redundent hardware, Mirror everything on a second server.

Dennisk

RAID is your best bet, every server admin should know how to use RAID

just make sure you understand it before you start to use it on production systems, there software RAID, and hardware RAID make sure you understand the differences before you implement either one.

this might help with software RAID

http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Software-RAID-HOWTO.html

NOTE:
software raid is slower and eats up more CPU cycles

Dankles,

Thanks for the suggestions. Would setting up a hardware raid configuration be much more complex then the afformentioned software one? If i'm going to spend the time w/ the project i'd rather have a hardware setup if it will be 'better'.

Hardware RAID has always out performed Software RAID; but, you need to buy some new hardware for it.

look up raid controllers on
http://www.pricewatch.com/
If you are really interested

the price can range from ~10$-500$ US
and I'm not sure how well the cheap one work, I've only used RAID on commercial servers

to learn about RAID go here
http://www.dataclinic.co.uk/data-rec...about-RAID.htm

the only RAIDs i would bother looking at on this site are

RAID-0
RAID-1
RAID-5

the other RAIDs are never used

Also, I wouldnt say software RAID is really bad, if you have never used RAID before, I would try out software RAID on some sorta test machine, just to get an idea.

Here are some HOWTOS i found on The Linux Documentation Project

http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/ATA-RAID-HOWTO/index.html
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Boot+Root+Raid+LILO.html
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/DPT-Hardware-RAID-HOWTO.html

One big consideration for hardware vs. software RAID is cost. HHardware RAID systems can be extremely expensive.

I was looking up some other info and came across this discussion of hardware vs. software. I also came across a pretty good collection of links on RAID and Data Protection Solutions for Linux.

F_M

I'm not very familiar with software RAID, the only time i have used it was on a windows 2003 server.

But EVMS looks pretty cool

And yes, hardware RAID is expensive, But if it's mission critical machine in a business market, I would look into hardware RAID

If this is just a home system, (file server, personal web server, ect..) go with software RAID

You're looking at high-availability systems. I would strongly urge the use of RAID1 on drives and having a redundant server on standby. Also keep spare parts locally.

There is no reason a disk failure should take you down for a full day. I routinely bring machines back up in 3 hours from disk failures WITHOUT RAID.