Author: MVSAdmin

All About Backup – Part 2

Posted on by MVSAdmin

As covered in Part 1, an effective and stress-free backup regimen should conform to the 3-2-1 rule – at least 3 copies of all your important data, with 2 copies on different storage media, and at least 1 copy always in a physically separate location.  The setup described below is the best way I’ve found to do this for small business and home users.

The Synology DiskStation

Synology Inc. is a market leader in the design and production of  Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices.  Their DiskStation and RackStation products cover a wide range of sizes and capacities that work for networks from home and small business size all the way up to enterprise installations.  A typical DiskStation for home or small business use is a “black box computer” (though some come in white), size about  9″ x 4″ x 6″.  It plugs into the network router and provides a huge amount of storage to all the PCs on the network (usually between 4 and 24 terabytes, depending on configuration).  Like a traditional network server, the DiskStation is designed to run all the time and provide both primary shared storage and a common backup location; unlike a traditional server, it has an operating system (DiskStation Manager) with a user interface that makes it very easy to setup and use.  With all that storage always available, it’s easy to setup every onsite PC to do a full backup every night. And laptop or remote PCs can be set to backup all important data in real time over a secure Internet connection no matter where they are.

That gives you two copies of important data for all PCs (one on the PC itself and one on the DiskStation).  There are many options to achieve both the third copy and the “at least 1 in a physically separate location” requirement.  The DiskStation has hundreds of installable apps, several of which allow you to set the DiskStation to automatically copy selected data to any of various different online storage services (Amazon, Backblaze, Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, Rackspace, and many more). You can also install a second DiskStation at a separate location and have the two continuously synchronized via a secure Internet connection.  And the DiskStation has high-speed USB connections that allow inexpensive and readily available portable hard disk drives to be used for DiskStation backup.

Backup Software

Windows PCs have had a built-in backup utility since Windows 7, but it is not terribly reliable nor easy to use and manage.  I’ve always recommended the Acronis True Image program as a better and affordable alternative (often as little as $10 – $25 per PC depending on current specials).  It allows automatic full image backups to be run regularly.  This gets everything on the PC – data, programs, Windows, settings.  It then allows easy and rapid restore of individual files or folders, or a complete “bare metal” restore of everything from a failed PC.

Case Studies and Costs

I have several clients setup with a dual DiskStation configuration, where one is installed at the office and one at the home of one of the business principals.  In each situation there are between 8 to 15 PCs at the office that use a common set of folders on the DiskStation as common storage (the equivalent of the old server “F:” drive).  The data files are synchronized continuously between the two DiskStations, allowing the home one to be used as an immediate replacement for the office one should it fail.  And the home DiskStation also does a backup of the data to an attached portable hard disk.  Each PC also does a nightly image backup to the office DiskStation to capture the current state of its Windows setup, programs, browser favorites, emails, locally stored data files, etc.  The PC image backups have too much data to be efficiently transferred via the Internet, so they are backed up to a pair of portable  hard disks that are regularly swapped so that one is always off-site.  So everything on every PC and the common “server” data always exits in 3 places, with at least 2 copies on different media and at least 1 copy in a physically different location.

The total cost: two DiskStations, each with 4TB of disk storage, about $400 each;  the True Image program, about $10 – $25 per PC, and a few hours of setup.

For many of my smaller business and home clients, a single $400 DiskStation is used.  The continuous off-site data synchronization is done to an online / cloud service (usually Backblaze B2 for its reliablility and low cost – often less than $5 per month).  And rotating portable hard disks capture the copies of the PC image backups.

Either of the above scenarios results in as close as you can get to a “set it and forget it” backup regimen that protects you and your business from catastrophic data loss and sets you up for much easier recovery from even the worst office-wide disaster. 

All About Backup – Part 1

Posted on by MVSAdmin

It’s already been 3 months since the 2019 “World Backup Day” (yes, it is a real thing – www.worldbackupday.com), so it’s time to remind ourselves of the importance of this topic. Like flossing and exercise, we can all pretty much agree that it’s important but many of us don’t do it often or well enough.

As Easy As 3-2-1

The gold standard of backup follows the 3-2-1 rule – at least 3 copies of all your important data, with 2 copies on different storage media, and at least 1 copy always in a physically separate location.  Let’s take those one at a time.

All Of Your Important Data

Every Windows user has a “Documents” folder where most programs store their data files by default.  And many users create subfolders off of their “Documents” folder for specific purposes.  The same is often true for the default “Pictures”, “Downloads”, “Music”, and “Videos” folders.  So backing up the content of those folders will usually get most of the important data.

But many users I’ve worked with are shocked to learn what’s missing from a backup of just these folders. 

There is also a folder called “Desktop” that contains everything you see on your Windows desktop, and many folks store data files and/or data folders on the desktop to make them easy to access. 

If you use an email client program like Outlook or Thunderbird, your downloaded emails and any contact and calendar data may be stored in folders other than those mentioned.  And depending on how your email account was setup, those may be the only copies of that data in existence.

Then there are things like browser favorites, macros, templates, and custom program settings that are either difficult or impossible to capture in a data-only backup.

And to make things even more complicated, some programs still default to storing their data files in folders other than the ones already mentioned.

The takeaway – find out where all of your important data is stored on your PC and make sure it is being backed up.

2 Copies On Different Storage Media

Most people these days are using either a flash / thumb drive or an external hard disk for backup.  They are generally reliable, high capacity, widely available, and inexpensive.  From 16 gigabyte flash drives at $4 – $5 each to 4 terabyte portable hard disks at $100 or less, there is a wide range of choices certain to fit any need.

A minor caveat about flash drives – because most of them stick out of the USB port by an inch or two, they are prone to being bumped and broken.  Even just the process of insertion and removal puts enough stress on the connector that these often break, making them incredibly bad choices to store the only copy of anything you want to keep.

At Least 1 Copy Always in a Physically Separate Location

This is often the most challenging part if you’re only using backup to flash or external hard disk.  Creating and regularly using procedures to swap drives and take one off-site is challenging for even the very disciplined PC user.

But one easier way to fulfill this last need is with an online service.  Many people already use Google Drive, Dropbox, or Microsoft OneDrive to synchronize copies of important data to folders “in the cloud” (and to other PCs that use the same account).  The drawback to these and similar services is that they only capture data stored in a separate, special folder on your PC, so you need to redo your file storage setup and modify procedures accordingly.

Or you can use one of the many online backup services (Lifewire has a great recent review of 22 different ones – https://www.lifewire.com/online-backup-services-reviewed-2624712).  These services allow you to specify which files and folders to backup and then run continuously in the background.

An Easier, Inexpensive Alternative 

In All About Backup – Part 2, I’ll describe a system I’ve implemented for many of my clients that makes 3-2-1 backup easy and automatic.