[ale] Writing a backup policy - home users

[BruceG]

Hey all,

	I tried writing a backup policy for home use. The general idea is to put in 
writing what backups are, and how to backup Windows "My Documents" folders to 
a Linux file server running Samba.

	If you've written a backup policy, or have struggled through it - would you 
mind taking a quick look and making recommendations? I'd like to have a 
starting point, so if I do put in a Samba server at church, I'd have a 
starting point for explaining backups there as well. If I don't put in a 
server, well - at least I'll have had a good learning experience.  ;-)

Bruce
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Backup Policy

	Backups are an important aspect of computing. Hours can go into creating a document, preparing a homework assignment, writing a report for work, or editing a digital film. With the use of a digital camera comes the need to store digital pictures, and back the pictures up in the event of a hard disk failure.

	There are three computers in our house. The upstairs desktop (when booted into SuSE Linux) acts as a file server. It allows you to store files from different computers on it. Each laptop can "see" the upstairs computer by searching Network Neighborhood. The upstairs computer is called CaptainHaddock (from TinTin).

	Each person in the house has a directory on the file server. This is called a home directory. You can copy files from each laptop onto the upstairs computer by logging on to the computer across the network. Simply click on Network Neighborhood. Look for computers close to you in the Personal workgroup. Here you will see all computers that have file sharing and print sharing for Windows enabled.

	To log into your home directory from a different computer on the network, click on Network Neighborhood, then on CaptainHaddock. Then click on home. You will be presented with a userid/password logon screen. Enter your userid and password for the upstairs computer. The userids match the name of your home directory. They also match you userid and password on the upstairs computer. These are: bruce, liz, kevin, ian and colin. Passwords will be given seperately.

	Once you log into the file server, you can copy files from your PC to the upstairs computer. A simple way is to just "drag and drop". To back up your "My Documents" folder, and all files and folders underneath "My Documents", simply click on "My Documents" and drag it to your home directory on the upstairs computer. This will provide you with a backup in case your computer experiences a virus, or loses files for other reasons.

	All files on the upstairs computer will be backed up weekly. This will be a full backup of everything stored on the upstairs computer, including all shared folders (and home directories).  Due to the price of backup materials (tapes), we will not store multiple copies of backups. We will have full weekly backups, though - so if you created a file last week and copied it to the file server, and then delete it from your computer this week - you will be able to restore it. If you deleted it several weeks ago, we will not have a copy.

	If you need to restore a file (or folder) from the file server to your computer, simply click on Network Neighborhood, then on CaptainHaddock. Log on to the file server using your userid and password. You will be able to click on your folder on the file server and see all your saved files. Click on the files (or folders) you want to copy to your  computer and drag it to your "My Documents" folder, or wherever you want to store your files. If the file is no longer on the server, but you saved it before the last server backup, we may be able to restore it to the file server from tape.	 

	Size limitations: the file server has a 40 gig hard drive, and has approximately 35 Gigs of space for shared home directories. Please be considerate and do not store video or music streams downloaded from the Internet, as these are space intensive and may be copyright violations. If you created your own digital music or video, by all means back those up.