Resources
Data Backup on Department Systems
The University of Arizona Computer Science Department provides computing systems for CS faculty, staff, and students. Operating systems supported include Linux, Windows and Mac OS X. The variety and number of computing platforms that exist in the department necessitate different backup schemes. Users should familiarize themselves with the following information in order to ensure that all important data files are protected against loss.
Don't assume that all directories on all systems are backed up. The person ultimately responsible for your data is you. If your data is extremely important, please discuss your situation with Lab staff personnel. When in doubt, e-mail lab.
Backups are currently retained for two months.
See our help page on restoring files from snapshots for detailed instructions on how to restore your own lost or mistakenly deleted files.
Student Instructional Systems
Students enrolled in any CS course will receive an account on Lectura (the department's centralized Unix timesharing server) and the instructional Linux systems (located in GS 228 and GS 930). These accounts allow access to all the PCs in our teaching labs. Our centralized file server (Zuni) serves the files in all student home directories. Under Linux your home directory will appear identical to that of Lectura and be mounted automatically when you log in.
Zuni is mirrored*** daily to a remote system for disaster recovery purposes.
The primary file recovery mechanism is a feature called a snapshot. The snapshot allows students to restore their own lost files. Student files may be restored from remote storage instead in extraordinary cases.
Students using the instructional lab PCs should access and store their user files in their home directories.
Files on the lab PCs (i.e., in local directories such as /tmp) are not backed up and may not be protected from access by other users.
Faculty Assigned Office Systems
Faculty in the CSc Department receive accounts on the instructional server, Lectura, and many other Linux systems within the department including their office workstations. Our centralized file server, Zuni serves the files in all faculty home, cvs and project directories.
Zuni is mirrored*** daily to a remote system for disaster recovery purposes.
The primary file recovery mechanism is a feature called a snapshot. This feature allows faculty to restore their own lost files. Files may also be restored from remote storage in unusual cases. However, this procedure is time consuming and should only be requested if absolutely necessary.
Faculty using departmental supplied workstations should access and store files in /home or /cs/project areas. Under Linux your home directory will appear identical to that of Lectura and be mounted automatically when you log in. Under Windows you will see your home directory as an H: drive.
Files stored on local Windows drives are backed up nightly upon the request of the user. The user's PC must remain powered on and booted into Windows overnight at least one day per week, in order for backups to complete properly. In unusual circumstances, special arrangements can be made to do a backup during working hours**. Backups, particularly from a laptop, may take several hours to complete.
Our backup software, Retrospect (primairly used for Windows backups), keeps backups for every day of the last week, one for each week in the last month, and one backup for each month after that--as longer as there is room for storage. Do not count on any backups being retained for longer than one year.
Files stored locally on a Faculty Linux workstation can also be backed up nightly, on request. For a backup of local files to execute, the system must be running Linux at the scheduled time. A user may exclude files from backup by placing them in subdirectories of a directory named do.not.backup. Additional exclusions exist for files such as .mp3 or .mp2 and the vmware image file.
Other Linux machines that receive backups of critical areas include service machines such as WWW, CGI and the DHCP systems. E-mail lab to arrange Linux backups of your workstation.
RA/TA Assigned office Systems
RA's and TA's in the CSc Department receive an account on the general instructional system, Lectura, and an account in the CSC Windows domain. Our centralized file server, Zuni serves the files in all home, cvs and project directories.
Zuni is mirrored*** daily to remote disk for disaster recovery purposes.
The primary file recovery mechanism is a feature called snapshot. This feature allows students to restore their own lost files. Files may be restored from remote storage in extraordinary cases. However, this procedure is time consuming and should only be requested if absolutely necessary.
RA's and TA's should access and store all files on the centralized file server. Under Linux your home directory will appear identical to that of Lectura and be mounted automatically when you log in. Under Windows you will see your home directory as an H: drive.
Windows files stored locally on a workstation are not backed up.
Linux files saved in /scratch are not backed up.
RAs and TAs frequently change office locations. Office changes usually entail a change to a new desk with a new computer, while old computers are reassigned.
Data left on the /scratch partition of any desktop machine is not guaranteed to be available after the move and should not be used for storage of important data. The same goes for data on the local drives under Windows.
Data files on local drives are subject to deletion during the cleanup of the machine in preparation for assigning it to a new user.
It is not acceptable to store your data on the /scratch partition of someone else's machine, even if that machine used to be yours. If the user currently assigned to this machine needs the space, the lab staff will delete your files to make space available for the current "owner" of the machine.
Data is absolutely the most precious commodity we possess. If you lose your data, not only are you hurt, but your research, and therefore your research advisor, may be impacted. The person ultimately responsible for your data is you. When in doubt, e-mail lab.
Staff Assigned Office Systems
Staff in the CSc Department receive accounts on the instructional server, Lectura, and other Linux systems within the department including their office workstations. Our centralized file server, Zuni serves the files in all staff home directories.
Zuni is mirrored*** daily to remote disk for disaster recovery purposes.
The primary file recovery mechanism is a feature called snapshot. This feature allows staff to restore their own lost files. Files may be restored from remote storage in extraordinary cases. However, this procedure is time consuming and should only be requested if absolutely necessary.
It is recommended that staff access and store files on the centralized file server. Under Linux your home directory will appear identical to that of Lectura and be mounted automatically when you log in. Under Windows you will see your home directory as an H: drive.
All staff PC's are backed up nightly*. Staff should know where their Windows applications store any critical data files in order to expedite file restore requests**. Please feel free to contact lab for assistance in this matter.
Our backup software, Retrospect (primairly used for Windows backups), keeps backups for every day of the last week, one for each week in the last month, and one backup for each month after that--as longer as there is room for storage. Do not count on any backups being retained for longer than one year.
Miscellaneous Systems within the Department
Users of various research systems within the Department, e.g., CL or CY clusters, should note that these systems are not backed up. Users are expected to store important files in their home directories (which are backed up) and move these to the appropriate research systems for use.
Windows machines in the CS labs--as oppossed to office assigned workstations, are not backed up. Data that is saved to the C: or D: partition of lab machines can, and probably will, be deleted from time to time by administrators.
Notes
* Nightly backups for individual Windows machines are performed Monday through Friday. Weekends are reserved for backing up centralized servers.
**Requests for file restores require that the user provide the file name, file location, and last time that the file was known to exist.
***Mirror means that when a file is deleted on the source machine it will soon be removed from the mirror system. This means that the mirror is not a good recovery method for certain file deletions.
Last updated May 6, 2010
by John Luiten
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