Backups on Self Administered Computers
Users self-administering their computer do not get the benefit of automated (from your viewpoint) backups of files. To assist users with their backups, CSG provides a "space" on a special backups server called selfstore.This space can be accessed using SSH-capable tools. We recommend using rsync or unison - particularly because they can be used to transfer only changed files.
Contents:
Access Permissions
All staff and postgraduate research students (who are expected to be running their own computer) should already have access to selfstore.If you do not have access and require it, you will need to ask System Support (through your supervisor if applicable) for access to selfstore. They will enable your access and create a directory.
Essentials
- Hostname
- selfstore.cse.unsw.edu.au
- Directory
- /backups/yourusername
- Guidelines:
- This server is only to be used for backup purposes. Under no circumstances should you be running processes on this server that aren't directly related to transferring files from your computer.
- Users have a generous quota on the filesystem, but are still encouraged to backup appropriate files. Do not backup your entire filesystem - just important user/data files and configuration files.
Checking quota
You can check your quota on selfstore by running this command when you are logged into selfstore :$ rquota -f /backups
Incremental backups
Incremental backups are not performed on selfstore. If you require incremental backups, you should manage them yourself. One way of doing this is to use the --backup-dir option of rsync.
This may result in multiple copies being made of (various versions of) the same file. As this can dramatically increase your disk usage on selfstore, you should only perform incremental backups in this way for a small, critical subset of your files. We do appreciate users minimising space usage where possible.Full Backups
Once a session, all user directories on selfstore are completely backed up onto tape. Note that this compares with the monthly backups taken of user directories on other file servers maintained by the CSG.Users may restore from these tapes (using tkrestore - see the documentation on backups), but note that any restored files will be restored into the user's CSE home directory (assuming it exists), and not into the user's directory on selfstore, nor (fairly obviously) into the filesystem on the user's self admin machine.