1. ECECIS filesystem backups

Backups of Unix systems maintained by ECE/CIS are performed nightly to tape. For ZFS filesystems, the 6pm snapshot is used. For other filesystems the live filesystem is used. For these backups we use Amanda.

1.1 Data Retention Policy

We do separate archiving of important SERVER data filesystems (home directories, email, web, etc) quarterly. These tape archives are kept for a period of five years. Client computers, PCs, Desktops, laptops (/NODENAME, etc.) are not archived. If you have important archival data, please make sure it's on a Server system. Daily backup tapes are in a 30 to 60 day tape cycle, so if data is over 30-days old, but not on a quarterly archive, it may not be able to be recovered. ZFS snapshots (such as those on the laptop virtual-tape backup system) have separate retention policies depending on available disk space and usage. See the Backup Status section to check and submit a Help Request question for any specific data retention issues not covered.

2. Backups of Linux, BSD, and MacOS Systems: Amanda*

Amanda can also be used to back-up Linux and *BSD systems that are not otherwise fully ECECIS-supported. The user should install Amanda, and give the "operator" user passwordless ssh access to the system from pitch-black.eecis.udel.edu. The public DSA key for the system is here. The operator user must be able to read the raw disk devices.

Ryan Bickhart has written Instructions for FreeBSD.

For more information, to enable Amanda backups for your system, or to request file restores, use the Help System.

3. Backups of Windows Systems: Bacula

Windows PCs may be backed-up using Bacula. To enroll a PC in this service use the Help System. If you are already scheduled for daily backups, there will be a Bacula icon (example) in your Windows system tray. Clicking on this icon will open the summary for recent backup attempts. If the status field indicate an error over a period of many days then the Help System should be used to attain further assistance.

4. Backups of Faculty Laptop Systems: Virtual Tape System

There is a Virtual Tape System (VTS) available for backing up faculty laptops (100GB+). A script has been written to initiate backups from a client which can be manually activated or (ideally) scheduled to run automatically: other server/desktop backups are activated from the server, which isn't ideal for mobile systems which aren't always on the network. Installation is straightforward, but feel free to request assistance through the Help System

To restore files from the Virtual Tape System, you can either mount the VTS on your computer or recover files from /backups/USERNAME on any EECIS UNIX system. To mount the VTS on a Windows client right click "My Computer" from the Start menu and select "Map Network Drive". Choose an unused drive letter and enter \\smb2.eecis.udel.edu\USERNAME as the "Folder". Note that USERNAME needs to be your EECIS login username, and if your username on your laptop is different, you'll need to click "different user name" and enter the appropriate information in the popup. To mount the VTS on a Mac client, select "Go->Connect to Server" from the Finder menu bar, and enter "smb://smb2.eecis.udel.edu/USERNAME" as the server address. Be sure to select "Registered User" and enter your EECIS username and password as your name and password (your full name may be incorrectly pre-filled).

Regardless of how you locate your backups, you should normally see two folders. One folder will be named for your machine, and is where the most recent backup files are found. (Z:\MACHINENAME\cygdrive\c, for example). The other folder is named 'Archive' and points to an hierarchy of archived copies (Z:\Archive\snapshot for example). The hierarchy is as follows: 12 & 18 are the previous Noon and 6pm copies, Mon through Sun are the Noon copies from those days this week, w0 through w7 are the Friday Noon copies from those previous 8 weeks, and finally the m0 through m2 are the end-of-month Noon copies for the previous 3 months.

5. Backup status

ECE/CIS users with university-owned systems can now see the status of their backup by visiting the Backup Information Page. From here, find the hostname of your machine, and hover over the hostname to see a summary of each disk on the computer. Click the hostname to have full detail of the backup status as well as reasons for failures. From this page, you can request a machine be added or removed from daily backups. You can also request a file restore from this page.

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