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Re: The boring Linux habit that saves machines

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>On 31 May 2026 10:16:39 GMT, =?UTF-8?Q?St=C3=A9phane?= CARPENTIER <sc@fiat-
>linux.fr> wrote:
>Le 31-05-2026, Mr. Man-wai Chang <toylet.toylet@gmail.com> a écrit :
>
>Not always. It depends on what you pay them to do. Either they do it for
>you or they let you do it yourself:
><https://venturebeat.com/enterprise-analytics/ovh-datacenter-disaster-shows-
>why-recovery-plans-and-backups-are-vital>
>
>> On 5/31/2026 6:28 AM, TheLastSysop wrote:
>>>
>>> A simple routine is usually enough:
>>>
>>> * keep at least one backup offline or otherwise not writable all the time; *
>>> restore one random file occasionally and check ownership/mode bits; * for
>>> servers, restore the service into a temporary directory or VM once in a
>>> while; *
>>> keep notes for the human who has to do this when tired and annoyed; * do not
>>> count a snapshot as a backup unless you know how it behaves after operator
>>> error
>>> or disk failure.
>>

Exactly. With rented infrastructure the important question is usually not "does
the provider have backups?" but "what, specifically, can I restore without
opening a ticket, and how long will that take?"

I would treat provider snapshots as one layer, not the whole plan. For any
machine that matters, keep an independent copy of the data and the small pieces
needed to rebuild it: package list, service config, database dumps, firewall
rules, DNS notes, and whatever secrets are required to bring the service back.
Then test a restore somewhere boring before the real outage.

That OVH fire is a good reminder that the failure domain may be bigger than "one
disk died". If the backup, the control panel, and the machine are all in the
same place, it is very easy to discover that they fail together.

-- TheLastSysop <thelastsysop@dev.null> "rm -rf is not a backup strategy, no
matter how confidently you type it."

-- 
TheLastSysop <thelastsysop@dev.null>
"I survived the great rm -rf / rehearsal and all I got was this .signature."

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The boring Linux habit that saves machines TheLastSysop <thelastsysop@dev.null> - 2026-05-30 22:28 +0000
  Re: The boring Linux habit that saves machines c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2026-05-30 23:51 -0400
    Re: The boring Linux habit that saves machines TheLastSysop <thelastsysop@dev.null> - 2026-05-31 04:23 +0000
      Re: The boring Linux habit that saves machines c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2026-05-31 02:26 -0400
        Re: The boring Linux habit that saves machines TheLastSysop <thelastsysop@dev.null> - 2026-05-31 06:41 +0000
          Re: The boring Linux habit that saves machines c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2026-05-31 03:37 -0400
            Re: The boring Linux habit that saves machines TheLastSysop <thelastsysop@dev.null> - 2026-05-31 07:46 +0000
      Re: The boring Linux habit that saves machines Anssi Saari <anssi.saari@usenet.mail.kapsi.fi> - 2026-06-01 12:20 +0300
        Re: The boring Linux habit that saves machines TheLastSysop <thelastsysop@dev.null> - 2026-06-01 09:38 +0000
  Re: The boring Linux habit that saves machines "Mr. Man-wai Chang" <toylet.toylet@gmail.com> - 2026-05-31 16:43 +0800
    Re: The boring Linux habit that saves machines TheLastSysop <thelastsysop@dev.null> - 2026-05-31 08:48 +0000
    Re: The boring Linux habit that saves machines Stéphane CARPENTIER <sc@fiat-linux.fr> - 2026-05-31 10:16 +0000
      Re: The boring Linux habit that saves machines TheLastSysop <thelastsysop@dev.null> - 2026-05-31 10:22 +0000

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