What is back-up for?

It may seem obvious, but back-up is of critical importance to data security. From a simple mechanical defect in drive hardware, to a fire that burns down the entire Physics department, the range of possibilities for data loss is great. And without back-up, the cause is irrelevant because the result is the same: catastrophic and total loss of all of your data (and possibly your career).

Simply, back-up is a way of reducing the probability that an unlikely event will wipe out your data. It is about disaster mitigation.

What is back-up not for?

Perhaps more important is what back-up is not for: backup is not archiving. It is not for historical recovery. Do not rely on our back-up system to retrieve old copies of data. If you want access to historical versions of work, use version control (and remember to back-up that version control). Don't rely on our systems to do this automatically; you will probably be disappointed.

Our back-up systems are designed to recover our system to a point shortly before a disaster. Backups take place nightly and we keep incremental backups for 2 months.

If you are prone to randomly deleting your own files, and not noticing until months after, then please contact us right away so we can advise you, because our current system is not sufficient to protect you.

Automatic back-up in Theoretical Physics

Linux desktop system
On the Theoretical Physics Linux desktop system, only home directories and DFS (Windows) group areas are backed-up Contact us if you are at all unsure.

Cluster systems
Hydra has a daily offsite backup, and a separate bi-monthly one.

Manual back-up in Theoretical Physics

Linux desktop system
No data other than that in the home directories, and in DFS, is backed-up. This includes all data on scratch partitions, /scratch and /local, To reiterate: if it is not in your home directory, and not in /physics/dfs it is not backed-up.

You also have 5TB of OneDrive cloud storage. The onedrive client is installed on the theory desktops. Please create the file ~/.config/onedrive/config containing the line sync_dir = "/local/home/bloggsf/OneDrive" where bloggsf is your Physics username. This will avoid using up your quota.
If /local/home/$USER/ doesn't exist, contact us
Note the amount of on-line storage greatly exceeds local capacity, so take care not to fill the local disk.

Mac laptops and desktops
Please use Time Machine as described at /it-services/time-machine

Alternatively, you can use the HFS service as described at https://help.it.ox.ac.uk/hfs/index
This is not recommended for Macs.

Linux laptops (and other self-maintained systems)
One might be tempted to say that is goes without saying, but I will say it anyway. If you do not back-up your laptop (or other self-managed system) yourself then it is not backed-up and your data is at risk. It is your system. You choose to use it. Nobody else can do it for you: back it up.

Laptops are provided with an external disk for backups. If this drive breaks, please return it and another will be provided. Do disconnect the cable from the drive when transporting it, as this can act as a lever and crack the circuit board.

You also have 5TB of OneDrive cloud storage. You may need to run sudo apt install onedrive to install it, or failing that go to http://skilion.github.io/onedrive/ , then type onedrive to get started. Files go in ~/OneDrive/ Note the amount of on-line storage greatly exceeds local capacity, so take care not to fill the local disk.

Alternatively, you can use the HFS service as described at https://help.it.ox.ac.uk/hfs/index

Code and other text documents
You can set up repositories at https://gitlab.physics.ox.ac.uk as required. For more details see the articles in /it-services/categories/software Please do not include large files in your repository (perhaps check in a list of sha256 sums and put the actual files elsewhere).

Large files
For backup of data, arrange for storage paid for by your research group, as per /it-services/backups-of-experimental-data

Git Large File Storage for Github is planned, but not implemented yet

If you don't know how to do this, or want to discuss the options, please contact support

What is the back-up schedule in Theoretical Physics?

The Apple and Linux file servers back up nightly to a separate system, which stores data incrementally.