Sherry Rogers
If you find backups to be a "must think of it" chore that you never do, or never do often enough, then we have good news. IST offers a backup service which runs automatically each day to back up your workstation--you don't even have to think about it.
If you have your own backup hardware and software, but are finding that continually growing disk space is beginning to make the task unmanageable, then we have good news for you, too. This backup service runs over the campus network; it requires no additional hardware or tape storage at your site, and will naturally handle any disk space you add.
This service, "UCBackup" (see the UCBackup Service home page, http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~ucbackup), supports a wide range of clients. Here are some of the workstations which are currently supported; many others are also available:
Backups are based on an incremental formula, so they are fairly quick and not time-consuming after the first run. The process runs in the background and allows concurrent use of the machine, though we schedule most backups to occur overnight.
The installation process takes about 30 minutes and the initial backups go at a pace of about 100 megabytes per hour for modern PCs and Macintoshes, faster for Suns and other more powerful machines.
Workstation files can be restored at any time by the user. Trying to remember what changes you made? Three versions of any given file are available to be restored. Erased files are kept for at least 30 days.
UCBackup facilitates disaster recovery and can be a critical component of emergency planning both for a major disaster and for the local disaster of losing a disk drive. If you are not located in Evans Hall, this backup process can fulfill an auditor's requirement for an "offsite" data repository. We are also offering as an additional service the ability to have a "snapshot" dump of your backed-up system taken and stored off-campus at our FileSafe commercial data storage facility.
The first month of service is provided for free. This allows us to do the first full system backup at no charge to you, and allows you to try the system before you start paying for it. After the first full backup the system performs "incremental" backups that only capture that data that has changed.
The basic cost for this service is $15/month for up to 500 megabytes of data sent to or received from the server. This is the amount of data transferred to/from the server during the month, not the size of your disk space. Even a large system may have very little data that changes, in which case this basic charge would cover it. Each additional 500 megabyte unit of data transferred or fraction thereof will incur an additional $10/month charge. Depending on how much your data changes, charges could vary from month to month; however, for planning purposes, most personal workstations do not exceed the minimum.
For departments with many workstations it will be more cost effective to establish a bulk service agreement with us. These service agreements will require that you provide your own UCBackup Departmental Coordinator to provide local support, in return for significantly reduced expense per workstation.
For more information you can browse the UCBackup Service home page (http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~ucbackup), or contact us via email at UCBackup@socrates.berkeley.edu. Registration for UCBackup service is initiated by submitting an Application for UCBackup Service form to User & Account Services, 206 Evans Hall.
Welcome to the efficient world of network computing!
Berkeley Computing & Communications,
Volume 8, Number 1 (Winter 1998)
Copyright 1998, The Regents of the University of California