4 ms·

If you're using Tarsnap, and you hear it fails, then quickly make a new backup somewhere else. The chance of your primary storage failing during that unlikely a

If you're using Tarsnap, and you hear it fails, then quickly make a new backup somewhere else. The chance of your primary storage failing during that unlikely and limited window seems low.

samwillis 13y ago
Yes, that could work however you have now lost your historical backups and still exposed yourself to an unnecessary risk. Again sorry Colin for this but there is a 1/500,000 chance he will be struck by lightning this year [1]. Amazon 3s (the backend of tarsnap) has a durability of 99.999999999% [2] and so you are 200 thousand times more likely to lose your backup because of a lightning strike than due to a corruption on s3. [1]:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning_strike http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning_strike [2]: http://aws.amazon.com/s3/faqs/ http://aws.amazon.com/s3/faqs/
- throwaway7767 13y ago
  I think the fact that Colin handles everything himself increases my trust in tarsnap, because he clearly knows what he is doing. I trust it in a way that I would not trust a faceless corporation like crashplan, even though they also advertise client-side encryption. I have a secondary emergency backup in a bank vault, so even in the unlikely event that tarsnap were to crash and burn at the same time my disk fails, I still have another backup, it's just 1-2 months old. Honestly, I'm not sure I would be a tarsnap customer if it were a larger operation where I could not gauge the trustworthiness and skill of all the involved parties.
- oskarth 13y ago
  Why do you need Colin alive in order use tarsnap? (God, that's a strange sentence to write. Sorry about that, Colin.)
  - iancarroll 13y ago
    Assuming the S3 bill is the next day...
  - samwillis 13y ago
    It runs through servers that he manages (it doesn't talk directly to s3). If those servers are down you can access your backups.
    - cperciva 13y ago
      I don't carry around EC2 servers my backpack. Me getting hit by a bus wouldn't take the servers down immediately.
      - vacri 13y ago
        If you get hit by a bus, who alerts your users and how? If your users aren't alerted, they may not realise that anything is amiss until AWS freeze your account for non-payment (for example). I can't say that I spend a lot of time keeping up-to-date on the project leaders' obituaries for services I use. I don't imagine I'm unusual in this regard :) Edit: This is just a rhetorical question, not a demand for explanation :) - just saying that being hit by a bus does not automatically mean that users are shifting off your service in 24 hours.
        icebraining 13y ago
        Colin has said he does have a system: http://mail.tarsnap.com/tarsnap-users/msg00849.html http://mail.tarsnap.com/tarsnap-users/msg00849.html

If you're using Tarsnap, and you hear it fails, then quickly make a new backup somewhere else. The chance of your primary storage failing during that unlikely and limited window seems low.

samwillis 13y ago

Yes, that could work however you have now lost your historical backups and still exposed yourself to an unnecessary risk. Again sorry Colin for this but there is a 1/500,000 chance he will be struck by lightning this year [1]. Amazon 3s (the backend of tarsnap) has a durability of 99.999999999% [2] and so you are 200 thousand times more likely to lose your backup because of a lightning strike than due to a corruption on s3. [1]:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning_strike http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning_strike [2]: http://aws.amazon.com/s3/faqs/ http://aws.amazon.com/s3/faqs/

throwaway7767 13y ago
I think the fact that Colin handles everything himself increases my trust in tarsnap, because he clearly knows what he is doing. I trust it in a way that I would not trust a faceless corporation like crashplan, even though they also advertise client-side encryption. I have a secondary emergency backup in a bank vault, so even in the unlikely event that tarsnap were to crash and burn at the same time my disk fails, I still have another backup, it's just 1-2 months old. Honestly, I'm not sure I would be a tarsnap customer if it were a larger operation where I could not gauge the trustworthiness and skill of all the involved parties.
oskarth 13y ago
Why do you need Colin alive in order use tarsnap? (God, that's a strange sentence to write. Sorry about that, Colin.)
- iancarroll 13y ago
  Assuming the S3 bill is the next day...
- samwillis 13y ago
  It runs through servers that he manages (it doesn't talk directly to s3). If those servers are down you can access your backups.
  - cperciva 13y ago
    I don't carry around EC2 servers my backpack. Me getting hit by a bus wouldn't take the servers down immediately.
    - vacri 13y ago
      If you get hit by a bus, who alerts your users and how? If your users aren't alerted, they may not realise that anything is amiss until AWS freeze your account for non-payment (for example). I can't say that I spend a lot of time keeping up-to-date on the project leaders' obituaries for services I use. I don't imagine I'm unusual in this regard :) Edit: This is just a rhetorical question, not a demand for explanation :) - just saying that being hit by a bus does not automatically mean that users are shifting off your service in 24 hours.
      - icebraining 13y ago
        Colin has said he does have a system: http://mail.tarsnap.com/tarsnap-users/msg00849.html http://mail.tarsnap.com/tarsnap-users/msg00849.html