Does linode do backups of our stuff? Is there any sheduled way to do it? I'd rather not have to use my own transfer budget doing backups, and also I have nowhere to put it anyway

Linode keeps your data on a RAID 1 mirror so you are protected against drive failures, but there is no protection past that. You are resposible for your own backups.

As for using your own transfer for backups, if you use some form of an rsync backup method, it won't take much transfer to keep nightly backups.

There is a nice HOWTO on rdiff backups here:
http://www.linode.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=403

And as for a location to backup to, I've heard a lot of good reviews on BQ Internet ( http://www.bqbackup.com/ ), though I haven't had the chance to check them out for myself.

I'm considering getting a Linode. I would treat it as a production system, and probably never need data backups - except for mail, and sql data - but i can handle that.

I'm am concerned that if I invest some time configuring a server, and there's a hardware failure, will I have to start over with a baseline install? (I'm planning to use Gentoo.) Is there a way to reduce this risk? Do I have to backup my config files in /etc, ~/?

Thanks

I would strongly recommend backing up as much as you can. Rebuilding a system from scratch is no fun especially if you have been developing your site over time.

For backups I've created a separate virtual disk and use rsync to copy the data I want to backup to it. That way if my system disk gets corrupted I at least still have my data.

Quick setup:

1. Create a new virtual disk
2. Config /etc/fstab or the like to mount the disk on boot.
3. Add it to your configuration in the profile manager (/dev/udbc/ --> name of new disk)
4. Reboot the linode
5. Install and use rsync on a schedule to backup the data

I think it took me all of 10 minutes to set it up and learn how to use rsync.

The disks are protected with RAID, right? So, is backing up to another virtual disk getting you much? RAID covers the case of disk failure. Are you thinking that restoring from your virtual disk is quicker then waiting for the system to be repaired?

RAID only protects you from hardware failure. In the case that a physical drive dies there isn't much you can do other than wait for the RAID to rebuild.

My backup is to protect me from data/partition corruption.

And sysadmin failure

_________________
/ Peter