<VV> <CORSA Chapters> "Improved" Concours class

[Bryan Blackwell]

Hi Bill,

You have an error in the paragraph below.  At the time that database was set up, I explicitly said that you needed a backup we were sure worked.  It's your data, and the SCG insisted on a separate database for it.  Fair enough.  The backup responsibility was not Harry's or mine, I asked the SCG to make a backup file, test it, and send me the command used so I could include it in the daily backup script.

That didn't happen, so there weren't any backups.

I'll take this moment to say that backups are really important.  A backup is an easily readable copy on separate media.  It shouldn't require special hardware or software to get at it.  In the case of a database, for our purposes the best backup is an export file.  That way you can pull the data into another database on a different machine using different software.  That backup also isn't a backup unless you've actually done such a restore.  I test all file based backups by pulling a file off, preferably on a different machine entirely - for example my personal data on my Mac is burned to DVD and then I open the files on a PC.  I only have one tape drive on the server, but I test every backup by pulling a random file off the tape to the machine and check to be sure I can read it.

--Bryan

On May 3, 2010, at 11:33 PM, Bill Hubbell wrote:

> Heck, for all I know, it is the reason Harry Jensen "accidentally" deleted
> the Stock Corvair Group Website (and all back-ups) from the CORSA Server in
> March of 2009, effectively killing all our momentum and setting us back over
> a year.