You may have heared about recent flood issues in Germany. This gives a few things to think about.
We normally know that we should mirror disks, because one can fail at any time. We also know that we should do backups, to a device that is not permanently connected to that same machine, because software may fail, controllers may fail, power supply may fail, damaging all the mirrors at once.
But this now looks a bit different, and it does not seem so very unlikely to happen. Lets face it:
I have a cloud machine, but the access key to that will be gone. I could access it from the panel, but the password to the panel will be gone. I can reset that password, but that needs the originally configured mail address, and that mail server will be gone, or also unaccessible.
Setting up a new machine from nothing is also not so very easy. I recently found that all the images (bootonly, memstick, disk1) do not even contain the compiler! They do not contain a complete OS and likely depend on the internet to complete an installation. Only the dvd image is complete enough to use it to compile a new system from sources (I did check that, but didn't check if it also contains the sources - I think it should), but that piece is ~4GB, probably too big to pull it down onto some smartphone via the supermarket wlan.
So, putting up a new system usually relies on having internet, while internet usually relies on having some system up and running. And BTW, the access key for the internet provider may have been configured on the system and long since forgotten - or it may be in some backup - but then, how to unpack that backup without a running machine?
Think about it...
We normally know that we should mirror disks, because one can fail at any time. We also know that we should do backups, to a device that is not permanently connected to that same machine, because software may fail, controllers may fail, power supply may fail, damaging all the mirrors at once.
But this now looks a bit different, and it does not seem so very unlikely to happen. Lets face it:
- all local site machines and data is destroyed, including those in nearby buildings.
- smartphones, laptops etc. are likely to be destroyed (they are not crafted for submarine operation).
- usb sticks should survive, but may no longer be locateable.
- ssh access keys are gone
- web passwords, stored in a software vault, in firefox, in the smartphone, ..., are gone.
I have a cloud machine, but the access key to that will be gone. I could access it from the panel, but the password to the panel will be gone. I can reset that password, but that needs the originally configured mail address, and that mail server will be gone, or also unaccessible.
Setting up a new machine from nothing is also not so very easy. I recently found that all the images (bootonly, memstick, disk1) do not even contain the compiler! They do not contain a complete OS and likely depend on the internet to complete an installation. Only the dvd image is complete enough to use it to compile a new system from sources (I did check that, but didn't check if it also contains the sources - I think it should), but that piece is ~4GB, probably too big to pull it down onto some smartphone via the supermarket wlan.
So, putting up a new system usually relies on having internet, while internet usually relies on having some system up and running. And BTW, the access key for the internet provider may have been configured on the system and long since forgotten - or it may be in some backup - but then, how to unpack that backup without a running machine?
Think about it...