AFS backups

About

We do automatic nightly backups of AFS volumes under 25GB that are in the cs.cmu.edu AFS cell (files under /afs/cs.cmu.edu). AFS backups work as follows: Each night around midnight, the contents of volumes in AFS are copied to corresponding volumes under /afs/cs.cmu.edu/.BACKUP. For example, the contents of /afs/cs.cmu.edu/user/bovik/ are copied to /afs/cs.cmu.edu/.BACKUP/user/bovik/. It is the contents of these backup volumes that get backed up to tape each night. There are also weekly incremental backups, and monthly and 6 month complete backups. The daily backup tapes are kept for 6 days before being recycled, weekly tapes are kept for 3 weeks, and monthly and 6 month backups are kept "forever".

Please send mail to help@cs.cmu.edu if you have questions about AFS backups, or have special AFS backup needs.

How to request an AFS restore

Before requesting a restore, you may wish to check that a copy of the file you want isn't in your volume's backup directory (see above for a description of that directory). Many AFS volumes contain a symbolic link called OldFiles that points to its backup volume. If not, you can directly look in the corresponding directory under /afs/cs.cmu.edu/.BACKUP.

To request a restore, send mail to help@cs.cmu.edu with the following information:

• The full path to the file(s) you need restored.
• The dates during which the file last existed.

Please send restore requests as soon as possible after a file has been deleted, since since files that exist only for a short period of time may not exist on tape after the daily or weekly tapes are recycled.