Birmingham mumbai

[
 230 
]
An effective backup routine will include several layers. Having an external disk is 
a useful backup, but why not have more than one, just in case one of them fails? 
Perhaps you can store one off-site, and swap the off-site and on-site backup disks 
weekly. In addition, perhaps you may use a command such as 
rsync
 to copy the files 
on your server to a remote server in another location periodically. You may even 
consider cloud backup solutions, which are another great addition.
In this section, I can't give you a backup scheme for your organization, because the 
layout of your backup system will depend on the needs of the organization, which 
are different from one company to the next. But what I can leave you with are some 
tips:
•  Make sure to test your backups regularly. Simply having a backup isn't 
enough, they have to actually work! Try to restore data from a backup 
periodically to test the effectiveness.
•  Have at least three layers in your backup scheme, with at least one being 
off-site. This can be a combination of external hard disks, network-attached 
storage, cloud storage, mirroring data to another server in another location, 
or whatever makes the most sense for your organization.
•  Consider encryption. Although it's beyond the scope of this chapter, if your 
backups fall into the wrong hands, then protected data may leak and be 
readable by people you don't want to have the information.
•  Check the policies of your organization, and ensure that your backup scheme 
is compliant. Not all companies have such a scheme, but if yours does, this 
is critical. Consider retention (how long backups must be kept for) and 
how frequently backups must be updated. If you don't have organizational 
policies, consult a lawyer to determine whether there are legal retention 
requirements for the industry of your organization.
Above all else, the point is to keep your data safe. So far in this book, we've looked 
at creating additional volumes, mounting them, and we even took a quick look at 
rsync
 earlier on. You've already learned some of the tools that can be 
made a part of 
a backup scheme, and you'll learn more methods before the book comes to a close. 
For now, keep these points in mind as you proceed through the book, and consider 
how each new skill you learn can be implemented as part of a backup scheme, if 
applicable.
LVM
 is one of 
my favorite technologies, giving us additional flexibility with our 
storage. In fact, let's take a look at that now.

---

Chapter 9