File Archival Services provided by the ECE Power Group

Members of the ECE Power Group have the option of using the file archival services.  Currently the weekly backup schedule is as follows:

One month’s worth of backup are kept.  At the end of each month, a ‘monthly’ backup is made.  That monthly backup tape is then put into storage and the tapes that were used to hold the four or five weekly backups for that month are then recycled and used to hold the next month’s worth of weekly backups.  One year’s worth of monthly backups are kept.

Files that are archived in an incremental backup are those files that have changed since the last normal or last incremental (e.g. the previous night for T, W, Th).  Files that are archived in a normal backup are ALL files in the backup schedule, whether they have changed or not since the previous backup of any type.

Services have been setup to backup directories on a user's desktop machine.  There is not sufficient capacity to archive entire file systems (drives) for individual users.  If you are interested in using this service, please contact your Systems Administrator to schedule an appointment to discuss your needs. 

The following are scenarios where a user requires a restoration for tape of a file that should have been archived.  This list of scenarios is non-exhauastive.

Scenario 1:

Today is Monday of week 1 of Jan 2003.  Prof. Krein intentionally deleted chap 5 of his book on the Tuesday of week 3 of Dec 2002 and has made no changes since.  His book with the deleted chap 5 can be recovered.

 Scenario 2:

Today is Monday of week 4 of Jan 2003.  Prof. Krein intentionally deleted chap 5 his book on the Tuesday of week 3 of Dec 2002 and has made no changes since.  His book with the deleted chap 5 cannot be recovered; that backup has already been overwritten.  Effectively, the only backup that remains from the previous month is the monthly backup.

Scenario 3:

Today is Monday of week 1 of Feb 2004.  Rob has graduated and asked for a copy of a paper he last edited on Friday of week 2 of Nov 2003.  The copy of his paper as of the last Sat. of the last week in Nov 2003 can be restored.  If he made no changes between week 2 and when the monthly backup for Nov 2003 was made then he has what he ask wants.  Otherwise the best that can be done is to give him the file from the Oct and Nov 2003 monthly backups and let him reconstruct changes that he may have made between those time periods.

Scenario 4:

Today is Monday of week 1 of  Feb 2004.  Rob has graduated and asked for a copy of a paper he last edited on Friday of week 4 of Nov 2002.  This won’t happen; only 1 year’s worth of monthly backups are kept.