[SAC] Hosted Backup System - cost discussion

[Jason Birch]

Tyler, do you have a copy of the signed agreement?  This is what was in
the quote; note, no mention of size limits:

  Daily Tape Backups for both servers $75/per server
   * A. We keep 14 backed up revisions of changed files.
   * B. We keep the last backed up revision of deleted files.
   * C. Versions of files that are not the most current version will be
kept for no more than 30 days. Similarly,
        deleted files will be purged from the system after 30 days
   * Daily Backups are $75/per server - Weekly Backups available for
$50/per month 

We went with PEER1 for reliability and recoverability, based on the
quote that they provided.  If they have implemented this change
post-contract, then we need to seriously look at other providers when
this term is up.

In the meantime, I think that we can do the following to reduce backup
size:

- Keep shorter amounts of backups local
- Exclude cross-backed areas from the tape backups
- Ensure that all critical services are being backed up to a location at
telascience

We do need to make sure that Peer1 is backing up:

 - Our web filesystem content
 - Our website configuration files
 - Our SVN backups
 - Our database backups

But they do not have to back up the entire history; just the most recent
one.  Perhaps we should look at a strategy that keeps the most recent
backup in a "to_backup" area, and ask them to ONLY back up that folder?

Jason


-----Original Message-----
From: sac-bounces at lists.osgeo.org [mailto:sac-bounces at lists.osgeo.org]
On Behalf Of Tyler Mitchell (OSGeo)
Sent: Wednesday, December 05, 2007 12:40
To: System Administration Committee Discussion/OSGeo
Subject: [SAC] Hosted Backup System - cost discussion

Here is a point of discussion for SAC, it relates directly to our
ongoing systems costs:

I just got off a call with our PEER1 rep, discussing recent backup
system developments.  When we first signed up with them, we chose a tape
backup option.  The plan we are on allowed for up to 30GB (per server).
This limit was recently increased, by them for free, to 50GB - but the
limits have never been enforced.

They have now changed their system from tape to a SANS solution, which
has its own technical benefits that we will receive, including quicker
recovery times if/when we need it, but also has increased technology
costs for them.  So they are going to start enforcing any overages of
backup volume in January.

At the moment, they are backing up all the data on both our servers,
including incrementals (i.e. 6 revisions, deleted files, etc.) for 30
days.  These revisions and deleted files all contribute to the 50GB max.
per server.

This works out to us overusing their backup system by ~115GB (osgeo1)
and ~80GB (osgeo2).  At their standard rate of $3/GB the charges for
this level of overrun will end up being very high.  We have a month to
address this.

Our options:
- tell them what folders/files to ignore during backup by filing a
support ticket.  [At the minimal I believe we can stop having them
backup the backups that go from osgeo1->osgeo2]
- pre-pay for more backup space (blocks of <100GB: $2/GB, blocks of
 >100GB: $1/GB)
- others...

Questions, comments, ideas?

Tyler
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