[ale] backup/restore mail from USB external drive

[JD]

On 02/12/2014 11:38 AM, Brian Mathis wrote:
> 
> P.S. RAID is not a backup and you should always have some kind of backup job
> running to external media regardless of the health of the RAID.

AMEN!  RAID is less important that backups, by 1000%.

I had a RAID drive fail last week - Seagate.  Picked up a replacement (Toshiba)
and put it into the array.  I had to shutdown for that - no hot-swap here. Then
added the new disk back into the softwareRAID and watched for 6+ hrs as the data
was resync'd.
Regardless, the nightly backups were there with 30 or 60 days (can't recall)
that I could recover at any point.  For the systems I run, including email, 30
days of backups is less than 1.20x the original storage size. Backups have
gotten really efficient in time, network and storage. It isn't like the old days
with dump or even using rsync-based rbackup or rsnapshot tools and hardlinks
anymore.

We have a backup how-to scheduled at ALE-NW in March, but that might get pushed
back 1 month due to the weather. Anyway, hope you will all mark your calendars
AND bring your laptops. The next 4 talks are planned to be hands-on efforts.