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Backup policy

User data in the HOME or DATA directories in only backud up for disaster recovery (such as a fire or complete hardware failure) on two physical sites with IBM Jaguar tape libraries. Due to the size of our volumes, some data may not even make it into the backup.

Disk Pools are used on the storage servers to protect against disk failure. Up to several disks failing concurrently can be sustained.
Other failure modes like disk controller failure or filesystem software faults are very seldom but might lead to loss of data.

Warning

Restoring lost or deleted files for users is not possible. Backup is solely the responsibility of each user.

In the case of $DATA, this backup can be toggled on/off in the project management page at VSC's service website.
Projects with GDPR sensitive data have backup automatically turned off. The same is true for volume sizes of 100TB or more.

Automated backup to your local machine with a script

Download and Configure the Backup Script

On your local machine, download the backupvsc.sh script:
wget https://gitlab.tuwien.ac.at/vsc-public/tools/-/blob/cc0cfdb044db7124669d0f68b1c87d3097694e8c/backupvsc.sh

Make the script executable:
chmod +x backupvsc.sh

Run the script for the first time to configure it:
./backupvsc.sh

You will be prompted to enter:

  • Remote username
  • Remote host (e.g., vsc5.vsc.ac.at)
  • Path to the remote directory to back up
  • Path to the local backup directory

These details will be saved in a configuration file at ~/.backup_config.

The script will also add useful aliases to your .bashrc file:

  • backupvsc: Runs the backup process
  • addbackupfolder: Adds an additional remote folder to the backup list
  • removebackupfolder: Removes a remote folder from the backup list

To activate these aliases, run:
source ~/.bashrc

Running the backup

To run the backup process, use the alias:
backupvsc

This will start the backup process, copying the specified remote directory and any additional folders to your local backup directory.

Adding a Folder to the Backup

To add an additional folder to the backup list, use the alias:
addbackupfolder

You will be prompted to enter the path to the additional remote folder. This folder will be included in subsequent backups.

Removing a Folder from the Backup

To remove a folder from the backup list, use the alias:
removebackupfolder

You will be prompted to enter the path to the remote folder you wish to remove from the backup list.