Chemistry UNIX Environment Backups

The CUEB is our secure push-based backup system. Each client machine uses rsync over ssh to push incremental backups to our backup server, backups.chem.indiana.edu. It currently handles full backups of over 200 UNIX hosts, running Linux, IRIX, Solaris, and OpenBSD.

Features of the CUEB are:

• We keep the last seven backups on disk for easy access. This typically corresponds to a week's worth of data.
• End-users can easily restore data from any backup on our disks.
• Duplicate files between hosts are hard-linked together to save disk space.
• Once every four weeks, the backups go off-site to IUPUI and IUB via MDSS (HPSS).
• ITG and the end-user are notified if a host has not successfully backed up in over 3 days.
• Full backups are only required for the first backup. All subsequent backups are incremental, which minimizes network traffic.
• Using public/private keys, the backup mechanism is extremely secure, and avoids man-in-the-middle attacks.

Support Documents

For end-user support, including installing the client software, please see the CUEBclient page.

For admin support, see Backups

Diagrams

See our Backup Schedule and Backup Architecture diagrams