Backups, backups, backups

Recent events have shown that awareness for one’s own data could still do with some improvement.

Everybody knows: backups are important. Then how come a lot of people don’t have any and implicitly rely on their host to handle them? This general assumption probably stems from experience in everyday’s life. If something breaks, we usually have warranty on it, so it gets replaced. If we accidentally delete a file from our home laptop, we recover it from some external drive, and so on. So certainly a company that deals with hosting your data should have backups, right? Or not?

The answer is: NO.

Most ISPs and hosting companies will not back up your data. And again: your service provider will NOT (really, they won’t!) back up your data. They will not have those urgently needed copies of your dedicated server. They will not have point in time copies of your virtual private server. They simply won’t.

I think the main point has now come across. But why not, they are … a host, after all, no? Yes, BUT: backups are not just snapshots of your VM. A proper backup involves a lot of brain because it includes parameters such as:

• what to backup (which files, databases, …)
• how to back it up (archives? all files? database dumps?)
• when to back it up (midnight? early morning? when is it best for you?)
• how often to back it up (once a day? a week? every hour?)
• how many generations of backups to keep (1? 3? 10?)
• how long to keep your backups (a month? half a year? 5 years?)
• HOW TO RESTORE FILES FROM BACKUP (why is this in capitals: it’s nice to know your files are backed up. Do you know how to retrieve them? Where to place them? Are there any dependencies between files lost and still there?)

When you signed up with your ISP, how many of the above questions were addressed? Or maybe their TOS say “we are not responsible for your data”? Taking proper backups takes a lot of human effort, and considerable IT resources. There are hosts who sometimes do you a favour and take snapshots of your VMs, but their TOS will still say they are not responsible, and they will not know what they back up either.

The only way to get out of this dilemma is to have a managed contract and or a special SLA that lays down all the answers to the abovementioned questions, and defines what sort of responsibility the host has if they do not live up to this agreement (i.e. if they DOlose your data).

Which brings us to the next point: YOU should always! have backups as well -especially you. It is your data, after all. If you do not have the resources to back up your data in reasonable intervals, you should come to an agreement with your host for a managed backup service (and still try to at least have off site backups every now and then: have your host send a DVD to you for example). An enterprise host will guarantee that your backups are securely stored on redundant and resilient hardware (a single drive attached to a USB port of a 10 year old server that has trouble booting after every update is not a redundant and resilient backup service), and such host will also regularly check whether your backups are readable and can easily be restored at your convenience.

This isn’t anything that can be included in a single digit per month contract for a run of the mill virtual private server or a dedicated server acquired during a blowout sale. Ultimately, if you lose data, it is your time and money that are at stake. If you have no arrangement with your host, you will take the brunt of any data disaster occurring (and even if you have an SLA with your host that defers responsibility to your host: if your host doesn’t live up to that SLA, you are still going to sweat a lot – along with your host who will be facing a claim for damages).