Best Practices for Data Backup in Weinberg College

All backup strategies have to consider the following 3 questions. 

1. What to backup?
2. Where to store the backups?
3. When to backup?
   

1. What to backup?

Guidelines to determine your important data.

In general, data that falls into one of the categories below should be included in backups.

• All work-related documents and files
• All work-related email

Weinberg IT network storage space is the first place you should consider for keeping your important data. If your data is on the Weinberg IT network storage space, it is automatically backed up.  As long as you have a good network connection, this space is always available.

Another strategy is to store all important data in your My Documents folder on PCs or Documents folder on Macs, and then to back up this folder to one of the backup locations outlined below. Using this strategy can make knowing what to backup very simple. 

What data should not be included in backups.

Any data that can easily be recreated or restored. Below are examples of data that should not be included in a backup strategy.

• PC
• Operating systems - e.g. c:\Windows
• Program files - e.g. c:\Program Files
• Mac
• Operating systems - e.g. /System
• Program files - e.g. /Applications

2. Where to store the backups?

For faculty and staff, the easiest and most reliable backup strategy is to work directly off the Weinberg IT network storage server - keep the primary copy of your important files on the server, open these files from the server, and save them back to the server. Your files are then automatically backed up each night. As long as your network connection is stable, this is the most straightforward and most reliable place to keep your important files.

If you cannot work directly off the network storage, you can still move your files to the servers on a regular basis. As a general rule, backups should not be in the same physical location as the source of the backup. This helps protect against disasters and theft. 

For assistance and advice about backups, please contact your Weinberg IT support person. All data on the network storage system is backed up daily to tape and stored for 3 months. These tapes are also moved off-site weekly. 

Other backup location options include

• Iron Mountain - currently only for PC. They provide off site backups with a web based interface to restore data. Please contact your Weinberg IT support person for details. 
• NUIT Iron Mountain information
• Iron Mountain company page
• External drives - are not recommended unless they are the only method available for data backup. 
• External drives have to reside in the same physical area as the machine which provides no protection against local disasters or theft.
• These devices are also a single point of failure. If they fail all data contained will most likely be lost. 

3. When to backup? 

Ideally backups should occur daily. At a minimum we recommend once a week. 
Weinberg IT is currently investigating recommended techniques for automating daily or weekly backups. 

General backup information:

• Wikipedia page on computer backups.
• Microsoft backup recommendations