The Computer Corner
Triple backups vs. an Act of God
By Charles Miller

The 1969 film Marooned starring Gregory Peck and Richard Crenna contains a scene I remember. The storyline is that three American astronauts are stranded in space, while people on the ground are working furiously to rescue them. One engineer comes to the mission director with a long list of items that must be checked before the rescue mission can lift off the launch pad, saying they cannot possibly finish checking everything before the rocket has to launch. The mission director grabs the list and crosses off most of the items.

“But those are all vital systems that need to be checked,” protests the worker.

The mission director replies, “All of those have backup systems and now we are going to find out if they work!”

Unfortunately, that movie scene exemplifies how most computer backup systems are used. Users put faith in the backup system to protect their data, or keep their business data safe, but the regrettable reality is that sometimes there is no easy way to tell if the backup plan is working until it fails.

Years ago I thought I had provided redundant protection for my internet connectivity. My office had internet service provided by both the cable company and telephone company. Then one day everyone in Marshall, Texas, learned that both companies’ internet connection traveled over the same fiber optic cable. We all learned that the day the cable was accidentally cut.

Another case in point is something that happened to a client of mine recently. Understanding the importance of safeguarding his data, this client had provided for a double-redundant backup system. All of the data from their file server was backed up every day automatically to a second hard drive in the server. In addition, they had a second backup on an external device they used whenever they remembered to do so.

Without warning one day disaster struck when the disk in the file server died, taking with it all their data. It was only then we discovered the second backup system that was supposed to be working automatically every day was not, and had not been for some months. There was no warning of this either.

This story had a happy ending, though, because the client had the second backup on the external device and that saved the day. A few files were lost, but the problem could have been much worse.

Email is important to me and so for my personal and business email address I have contracted with a provider in Philadelphia able to give me a triple-redundant system. In other words, my email server has an independent backup and that backup has a second backup that is finally toughened by a third backup.

So far this system has never failed. There have been times the primary delivery system has gone down and I have had to go to the backup system, and on the occasion when the second backup was unavailable and three of the four systems were down, I had to fall back on the last-chance backup.

I suppose what these stories tell us is that while backup systems are a good idea and a necessary one for businesses, no system is guaranteed to work 100 percent of the time. Some things are beyond human power to cause, prevent, or control.

The French call it “force-majeure” and as far back as 1803 English courts ruled “By Common Law, Carriers are insurers against every loss of property entrusted to their care, except losses arising from the Act of God.”



Charles Miller is a freelance computer consultant, a frequent visitor to San Miguel since 1981 and now practically a full-time resident. He may be contacted at 044-415-101-8528 or email FAQ8 (at) SMAguru.com. 




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