You know, if you’re a system administrator there are a few things you should know (and probably do). One of those things is why you should have backups.
If you can’t figure out why perhaps you should find a different profession.
Seriously.
I’m fine if you don’t keep backups because you’ve thought about it and you are taking a calculated risk. However, having to explain why backups are valuable to someone who, until this moment, I considered a peer is ridiculous.
It’s like having to explain what DNS does to someone who calls themselves a network administrator. I’ve done that, too.
I could not agree more. I have had to explain both to so called admins… makes me worry.
This is usually a point I try to make early-on when giving someone advice about their systems.
Just as important as doing backups is verifying that your backups work, and can be used to recover the data.
To drive home the point about backups, I’ve done a couple things to my sysadmins & DBA’s.
Sysadmins: Walk up and ask ‘Where do you keep your docs on the system’. ‘Cool – now delete that directory.’ …. ‘And recover it from backup.’ If they hesitate, they loose.
DBA’s: ‘How about this afternoon we do a point-in-time recovery of .’ ‘Let’s pick a time – say…..as of 05:45 this am….’
–Mike