[SAC] [support.osuosl.org #20349] Backup Implementation for OSGeo VMs

[tech@wildintellect.com via RT]

Do you still have a strong preference for Dell? I've been having
unpleasant ordering experiences with them, along with pricing
challenges. Personally I've had a better experience with Silicon
Mechanics which is pretty local to you.

We're looking at a 1U 4 disk system (2, 3 or 4 TB drives). 1-2 lower end
sockets.

I'll put together some quotes.

Thanks,
Alex

On 08/02/2013 10:23 AM, Sean Rettig via RT wrote:
> Hello Alex,
> 
> Given the large storage requirements, we feel that you may be better off purchasing and managing your own server for now.  The server specs are largely up to you, since what you'll need is heavily dependent on what you plan to do with it.  We would, however, like to see what you have decided on before you order it.  Let us know if you have any questions.
> 
> Thanks,
> Sean
> 
> ---
> 
> Sean Rettig
> Student Systems Engineer
> OSU Open Source Lab
> 
> On Wed Mar 20 10:53:41 2013, tech at wildintellect.com wrote:
>> I think I've got multiple tickets related to this topic open now.
>>
>> Yes, we do still need to solve our backup needs. The current idea from
>> OSGeo is a 1U server with 4x2TB or 4x3TB drives for $1500-$2500. That
>> gives us 4-6 TB RAID 6 usable and should last us 3-5 years.
>>
>> If you guys can match that pricing and level of service we could use
>> your service. Otherwise we'd love a quote on hardware we can pay for
>> to
>> get something in soon.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Alex
>>
>>
>> On 10/20/2012 03:32 PM, Lance Albertson via RT wrote:
>>> We're you still want to do this? We can always work out a better
>> deal if
>>> the cost is too high.
>>>
>>> Thanks
>>> On Mar 1, 2012 5:07 PM, "Lance Albertson" <ramereth at osuosl.org>
>> wrote:
>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Thu, Mar 1, 2012 at 4:49 PM, tech at wildintellect.com via RT <
>>>> support at osuosl.org> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> On 03/01/2012 04:35 PM, Lance Albertson via RT wrote:
>>>>>> On Thu, Mar 1, 2012 at 6:47 AM, Martin Spott via RT
>> <support at osuosl.org
>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> The combined net disk space on the OSGeo VM's is approx. 2 TByte
>> and,
>>>>>>> even though we currently don't use all of it, I think it's a
>> good idea
>>>>>>> being prepared to do so.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> That's going to take a nice chunk of space on our server but
>>>>>> its manageable. Does your project have any funding to offset the
>> costs
>>>>> of
>>>>>> having us do the backups? I can give you an estimate for that if
>> you'd
>>>>> like.
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Yes, we'd like an estimate per GB, or 100 GB or 1 TB. Whichever
>> units
>>>>> make sense. The alternative we've been considering is buying a new
>> server.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> So I just re-did all our "rates" recently to figure out costs and
>> it boils
>>>> down to the following; $50/client up to 500G per client. So that
>> comes up
>>>> to $500/mo or $6,000/yr and covers around 5T of data. This includes
>> staff
>>>> time to setup and maintain the system and replace the hardware in
>> three
>>>> years. But I'm obviously flexible as this is just an estimate.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> A copy of our current bacula director config has been sent to
>> Lance. In
>>>>> some cases (e.g. Apache) we actually want to keep some logs. We
>> are
>>>>> still undergoing some refinement to make the whole thing more
>> efficient.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>   Perfect!
>>>>
>>>> I assume you can take care of the keys, since you have access to
>> all the
>>>>> guests.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Yup! Are you currently managing the bacula configs with
>> configuration
>>>> management on your end? I don't want us to run into that.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>   > *nods* Currently restores have to be initiated by us but we
>> are working
>>>>>> towards creating access to work around that. Will this be a
>> problem?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Thanks-
>>>>>>
>>>>> Generally no, we hope to never have a need for such a restore and
>> in
>>>>> such an event we'd likely be filing a ticket with you anyways
>> because
>>>>> something went wrong with the hardware or VMs. Though access to
>> extract
>>>>> some files from the backups would be nice long term.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> *nods*
>>>>
>>>>> That's going to take a nice chunk of space on our server but its
>>>>>
>>>>> We're more than happy to buy disks if that's the best solution.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> The cost above generally covers most cases and the server itself is
>>>> already full of disks.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks-
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Lance Albertson
>>>> Systems Administrator / Architect                        Open
>> Source Lab
>>>> Information Services                             Oregon State
>> University
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
> 
> 
>