Section 23.5. Gigabit Ethernet

23.5. Gigabit Ethernet

As the amount of data that needed to be backed up grew exponentially, backup software became more and more efficient. Advanced features like dynamic parallelism and software compression made backing up such large amounts of data possible. However, the amount of data on a single server became so large that it could not be backed up over a normal LAN connection. Even if the LAN were really fast, only so many bits can be sent over such a wire.

Gigabit Ethernet was supposed to save the backup world. Ten times faster than its closest cousin (Fast Ethernet), surely it would solve the bandwidth problem. Many people, including me, designed large backup systems with gigabit Ethernet in mind. Unfortunately, we were often disappointed. While a gigabit Ethernet connection could support 1,000 Mbps between switches, maintaining such a speed between a backup client and backup server was impossible . The number of interrupts required to support gigabit Ethernet consumed all available resources on the servers involved. Even after all available CPU and memory had been exhausted, the best you could hope for was 500 Mbps. While transferring data at this speed, the systems could do nothing else. This meant that under normal conditions, the best you would get was around 200400 Mbps.

As of this writing, 10 Gbps NICs are becoming generally available, and they're going to solve the world's problemsat a cost of several thousand dollars per NIC. Believe it or not, I've talked to at least one person that was able to achieve 4,0005,000 Mbps using such a NIC on a high-end Solaris server and Solaris 10's IP stack. If those tests hold true in other shops , it will help. In my heart, however, I think we're fighting a losing battle.

23.6. Disk Recovery Companies

It seems fitting that a section in this book should be dedicated to disk recovery companies. When all else fails, these are the guys who might be able to help you. Every once in a while, a disk drive that doesn't have a backup dies. A disk recovery company actually disassembles this drive to recover its data. This service can cost several thousand dollars, and you pay the fee regardless of the success of the operation. Although these companies may be expensive, and they may not get all the data back, they may be the only way to recover your data. There are several such companies, and they can be found by a web search for "disk recovery."

Here's hoping that you never need to use them....

23.7. Yesterday

When this little parody of a Paul McCartney song started getting passed around the Internet, it got sent to me about a hundred times! (The original author is unknown.) What better place to put it than here?

Yesterday,

All those backups seemed a waste of pay.

Now my database has gone away.

Oh I believe in yesterday.

Suddenly,

There's not half the files there used to be,

And there's a milestone hanging over me

The system crashed so suddenly.

I pushed something wrong

What it was I could not say.

Now all my data's gone

and I long for yesterday-ay-ay-ay.

Yesterday,

The need for backups seemed so far away.

I knew my data was all here to stay,

Now I believe in yesterday.

23.8. Trust Me About the Backups

Here's a little more backup humor that has been passed around the Internet a few times. This is another parody, attributed to Charles Meigh, based on the song "Use Sunscreen," by Mary Schmich, which was a rewrite of a speech attributed to Kurt Vonnegut. (He never actually wrote or gave the speech.) Oh, never mind. Just read it!

Back up your hard drive.

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, backing up would be it.

The necessity of regular backups is shown by the fact that your hard drive has a MTBF printed on it, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience.

I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the freedom and innocence of your newbieness.

Oh, never mind. You will not understand the freedom and innocence of newbieness until they have been overtaken by weary cynicism.

But trust me, in three months, you'll look back on groups.google.com at posts you wrote and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how witty you really were.

You are not as bitter as you imagine.

Write one thing every day that is on topic.

Chat.

Don't be trollish in other people's newsgroups.

Don't put up with people who are trollish in yours.

Update your virus software.

Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind.

The race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself.

Remember the praise you receive.

Forget the flames.

If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Get a good monitor.

Be kind to your eyesight.

You'll miss it when it's gone.

Maybe you'll lurk, maybe you won't.

Maybe you'll meet F2F, maybe you won't.

Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either.

Your choices are half chance.

So are everybody else's.

Enjoy your Internet access.

Use it every way you can.

Don't be afraid of it or of what other people think of it.

It's a privilege, not a right.

Read the readme.txt, even if you don't follow it.

Do not read Unix manpages.

They will only make you feel stupid.

Get to know your fellow newsgroup posters .

You never know when they'll be gone for good.

Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few, you should hold on.

Post in r.a.sf.w.r-j, but leave before it makes you hard.

Post in a.f.e, but leave before it makes you soft.

Browse.

Accept certain inalienable truths: spam will rise. Newsgroups will flamewar. You too will become an oldbie.

And when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were a newbie, spam was rare, newsgroups were harmonious, and people read the FAQs.

Read the FAQs.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those that supply it.

Advice is a form of nostalgia.

Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the logs, reformatting it, and recycling it for more than it's worth.

But trust me on the backups.

BackupCentral.com has a wiki page for every chapter in this book. Read or contribute updated information about this chapter at http://www.backupcentral.com.