Why Your RAID-10 Array Won't Save You From a Typo

It is the oldest story in the hosting book. A junior developer logs in as root, intends to clear a cache directory, and types rm -rf / var/www/html. Note the space after the slash. In a fraction of a second, your high-performance SAS drives faithfully execute the command. The RAID controller mirrors the deletion to the second drive instantly. Redundancy is preserved; your data is gone.

In 2010, relying solely on hardware redundancy is professional negligence. As we see more mission-critical workloads moving from physical racks to Virtual Private Servers (VPS), the discipline of off-site, automated, versioned backups distinguishes the amateurs from the professionals.

The "3-2-1" Rule Adapted for 2010

The gold standard remains: Keep 3 copies of your data, on 2 different media types, with 1 copy off-site. In the context of a Nordic VPS environment, this translates to:

• Live Data: Your running CoolVDS instance (likely on our RAID-10 SAS or SSD-cached storage).
• Local Backup: A nightly dump retained on a separate partition or secondary virtual disk.
• Remote Backup: An encrypted archive sent over the wire to a different physical datacenter, preferably still within Norway to satisfy Personopplysningsloven (Personal Data Act) requirements.

The Tools: Keep It Simple, Stupid

Forget expensive enterprise proprietary software that requires a Java agent. The most robust tools in the Linux ecosystem are already installed on your server: rsync and mysqldump.

1. Intelligent File Synchronization

Don't use FTP scripts; they are insecure and inefficient. Use rsync over SSH. It only transfers the deltas (changes), saving massive amounts of bandwidth—crucial if you are pushing gigabytes of data nightly.

Pro Tip: If you have a lot of small files (like a Magento installation or a busy mail server), standard rsync can be slow to calculate the file list. Use the --inplace flag if you are short on disk space, though be wary of partial transfers if the connection drops.

2. Database Consistency is Key

Copying the raw /var/lib/mysql folder while the MySQL server is running is a recipe for corruption. You need a consistent dump. For MyISAM tables, you must lock them. For InnoDB (which you should be using in 2010 for data integrity), you can use the single-transaction flag to avoid downtime.

CoolVDS Insider: We see too many customers using OpenVZ containers from budget providers where kernel-level locking is restricted. CoolVDS uses KVM virtualization. This means you run your own kernel. You can mount specific backup filesystems or run aggressive lvm snapshots without the host node stopping you.

The Legal Reality: Data Sovereignty in Norway

Latency isn't the only reason to host in Oslo. With the tightening of data inspections and the complex landscape of Safe Harbor agreements, keeping your data strictly within Norwegian borders is the safest bet for compliance with Datatilsynet.

When you pipe your backups to a storage server, ensure that server is physically located in Norway. Sending customer data to a cheap storage bucket in the US might violate Norwegian privacy laws if that data contains sensitive personal information.

Automate or Die

If your backup strategy relies on you remembering to type a command, it has already failed. Use cron.

Edit your crontab (crontab -e) to run your backup script at 03:00 AM, when traffic is typically lowest for European visitors.

Make sure your script includes a rotation mechanism. A simple logic to keep the last 7 daily backups and delete anything older than 7 days ensures you don't fill up your disk space—a common cause of server outages.

The Hardware Factor: I/O Wait

Backups are I/O intensive. On shared hosting or oversold VPS platforms, your nightly backup can cause "CPU Steal" to skyrocket, making your website sluggish while the backup runs.

This is where infrastructure matters. At CoolVDS, we utilize enterprise-grade hardware RAID controllers with battery-backed cache. This absorbs the write punishment during backups, keeping your web server responsive. We don't oversell our I/O. When you run a backup on CoolVDS, you get the dedicated disk throughput you paid for.

Final Checklist for the Paranoiac

• [ ] Are your backups encrypted? (Use gpg before transfer).
• [ ] Have you tested a restore? (A backup is Schrödinger's file until you successfully restore it).
• [ ] Is your backup server on a different network segment?

Don't wait for a hardware failure or a human error to test your disaster recovery plan. Spin up a secondary instance on CoolVDS today—deployment takes less than 60 seconds—and practice restoring your production environment. Your data is worth more than the cost of a coffee.