CS Backups

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Overview

The department uses a fast and efficient rsync based backup system that is stored off-site. Backups are generally run daily.

What Gets Backed Up

All CS infrastructure services are backed up including: email (IMAP folders), web pages (www, courses, research, and people), and mySQL databases. Any workstation, by request, will be backed up. Contact Techstaff if you have a workstation you want backed up.

Special Cases

  • Laptops: Laptops can't be routinely backed up because they are usually not left on all the time. If your laptop is Windows 10+ based, then we have USB keys that can be used for Windows backup.
  • One-time: Contact Techstaff if you would like a one-time backup, such as before reinstalling your machine.
  • Very Large: If your back up is very large (over 1 TB), special arrangements may have to be made. Space on the hard disk array is limited, so a daily backup in this case might not be possible.

Setting Up Your Backup

See the following how-tos:

Setting up backups for Windows

Setting up backups for Linux

Setting up backups for Mac OSX

Retention

The daily backups are kept on the following schedule:

  • Daily for 7 days
  • Weekly for 4 weeks
  • Monthly for 12 months
  • Yearly is kept until deleted

Restores

Single files or folders can be easily restored from daily backups. The operating system and programs can not always be restored from backups. Most likely a full restore will require the operating system and programs to be installed by hand before restoring the data.