2024 annual reminder to back up your sequence files

[k6ccc]

This is essentially a re-post (with a little editing and updating) from a ten year old thread.

I'm going to bring this up (again), because we are getting close to show season, and every year at least one person shows up on the forum after having lost all or part of their sequences due to a hard drive crash, home burglary, fire, accidental deletion, computer virus or ransomware, or some other reason.  I'm hoping this reminder will keep at least one person from being in this awful situation.  The summary is:  Backup!  Backup!  and  Off-site Backup!

And don't forget that as most of us get more and more dependent on computer data this requirement extends far beyond our light show sequences.  Think about family photos, financial and tax records, etc...

I know that some of you have seen parts of this before, but take this as a reminder. I am a bit unusual in that I have a domain controller / file server and all computers log into the domain.  Therefore, most of you can't do exactly what I do, but it should give ideas.  On both the show computer and primary sequencing computer, there is a mapped network drive of L: that is really D:\Shared\LOR on the file server.  All the LOR files are stored on the server.  When I am sequencing my normal routine goes something like this.  While I am sequencing, the file being worked on is saved with a new filename regularly with the date and a revision letter as part of the file name so it's easy to tell what is newer than what.  For example a file might be:

Jingle Bells 2023-08-03a.loredit

I'll bet most of you can figure out what song it is, and what date that I edited it.  The "a" after the date indicates that it was the "a" revision for that date.  Every time I save the sequence, I save with a new filename and increment the revision letter.  BTW, if I were to get to a "z" revision, I figure I have spent too much time sequencing and it's time to quit for the day.  I think I got to a "s" revision once.  Usually when I am completed sequencing for an evening (and happy with it) or during the next session, I will delete the intermediate versions leaving only the last version of the night.  The next step is to upload the last version of the night onto the cloud.  In my case I use Google Drive.  BTW, don't forget to backup Previews, audio files, and any other common files.

The D: drive on the server is currently four 1 TeraByte hard drives in a RAID-5 configuration.  This protects against a single drive failure.  There is also a fifth identical drive as a hot spare (the server has room for eight drives).  The hot spare drive will protect against a second drive failure (provided it happens long enough after the first failure that the RAID controller has moved it into an active role and fully rebuilt the array).  Note that in the event that the RAID controller detects a problem, it will immediately send me an E-Mail.  The entire server is backed up every Friday night to the D: drive on my family room computer (different building).  Additionally every Sunday or Monday night the entire server is backed up to an external hard drive and taken into my office at work.  I have two external hard drives that swap places as the off-site backup.  In other words, there is always a backup drive at work that is no more than 8 or 9 days old.  Each of the external drives and the D: drive on the family room computer are large enough to hold two full backups.  Therefore, I normally have a total of six backups that vary from no more than a couple days old up to about a month old.  And as noted above, important files are copied to the cloud right away.  In the event of a problem that takes out the server completely (house burns down, major theft, Sax's RansomWare, etc), the data is sitting somewhere else - usually more than one other place.  One note on cloud storage.  Some cloud storage solutions will create a drive letter on your computer.  That way you can save or copy files to the cloud just as easily as a local hard drive.  This is very convenient, but does come with one major gotcha.  Because it appears as just another hard drive on your computer, malware (such as a virus or RansomWare) can access it just as easily as a local hard drive.  In other words, your cloud storage could get wiped out at the same time as your local hard drive. Keep that in mind.  This generally applies to automated backup solutions as well.

You will note that I have made several references to having backed up data off site.  I can not stress the importance of this enough.  There are several things that are quite capable of removing or destroying your backup if it's sitting on the shelf right next to the computer.  At least one person here on the forum had their home burglarized, and the bad guy took both the computer and the backup disks that were right next to it.  A fire can easily destroy both as well.  And yes, we had someone on the forum a few years ago that lost their house in a large brush fire that took out their backups that were in another building on their property.  A flood can do the same thing.

Just for good measure, this computer (what I normally use for sequencing), the LAN switch in this room, and cable modem are protected by a UPS that has about an hour of battery life.  The server, show computer, routers, fiber ONT, and LAN switch in the data cabinet, are protected by redundant UPSes that currently are good for about eight hours (each UPS feeds a different power supply in the server), and when some re-arranging is completed, the data cabinet will have about 20 hours of battery (unless it's during the day when the solar will extend that).  I also have a generator that I can hook up.  I also get sent E-Mails in the event of loss of primary power for any of the UPSes.  During Christmas show season, all the active LOR files are also copied onto a backup folder on the show computer.  In case of a failure of the server, I simply change the mapped network drive of L: on the show computer so that it points to C:\LOR_Local, and all my files are there.  I did have to use that option in 2014 when my ancient server was dying and kept re-booting.  In the event that the show computer dies, I can move the three LOR networks and audio back to the server and run the show from there - which is how I run the year round landscape lighting show.

In case you are wondering why I am so detailed in making sure stuff stays working, it comes from what I do for a living.  I run a regional public safety two way radio system with the understanding that under the wrong set of circumstances, failure of the radio system could result in someone dying.  We take system reliability VERY seriously at work!  That mentality rubs off at home...

[TheDucks]

↑ ↑ ↑ ✔ 

Many years ago, it was pounded into my head that having a GAP in your network because of a power outage, make all the other expense questionable. (Allowing a buffer to flush to storage, is still a good reason, even if there was a gap).

Don't always buy the cheapest UPS for every location.  Things to consider: 1)Does it support Expansion Batteries. 2)Does it have the ability to cause remote notification (Not all of mine are in the same room or you might not even be on site).  It is a shame that you have to go with a HIGH VA just to get a Expansion Battery connection. :(

Don't backup unnecessary loads on the critical UPS (eg/ printer, unless it is required for process logging. those get plugged into Surge Only).  Run the numbers. Each UPS in the network needs about the same run time for ITS attached load.  1) My Cable router and Cordless base station (router supplies the dial tone) is one. 2)I have a data closet with the House switch and a small NAS.  3) (The biggie,15VA. My office desk systems) I have almost 2 Hours. Plenty of time to connect extension cords to the WELL VENTALATED carport Generator.

 

 

[dgrant]

I reiterate what's been stated...things happen. When you've put as much work, sweat, tears. sometimes blood, into this hobby of ours for the pure enjoyment of everyone who sees our shows run...follow the above advice. Multiple backups, power backup(s), extra data cables, power cables, lawn stakes for windy areas and more. Things happen! A couple of years ago, we had a tornado spin up right here. It trashed my display on two homes as the rotation sped up. Over this hill and down the other side to where it destroyed several homes and severely damaged many others...things happen. I had my show back up and running that next evening because I had spares of what I needed.

As mentioned already, computers fail so be sure to have backups. These days, you most likely backup the entire LOR directory onto a flash drive at a minimum.

[Wayne K]

Yep, make those backups. My show computer is all it does. so when the season is over I power it down and leave it plugged in. Then pull the monitor, mouse and keyboard. Went to fire it up a couple of weeks ago and it would not boot up. New hard drive and downloads from idrive and back up and running in a short time.

Wayne

[dgrant]

Like cars, most know they must be driven. Similar for computers in that they need to be run regularly. This keeps the updates coming in and other issues at-bay. Older machines are more susceptible to capacitor failures on various parts such as power supplies so the only way to insure they are ready to run when needed is to run them from time to time.

[cfeltman]

I am your  person this year. Helene got us. I had backed up to a flash drive but that was on site as well. We lost 7, possibly only 5 of our 16 controllers to salt water. We did not lose the show director or the SD card with last years show on it. is there a way to recover the sequences and music from the SD card? I can just play last years show and rename controllers to run the lights that survived, but recreating the master list is gonna be a pain. Believe me we are learning a lot of lessons!

[Don]

3 hours ago, cfeltman said:

is there a way to recover the sequences and music from the SD card?

Music, yes. The MP3 files are on the SD card.
Sequences, no. Once it's converted and written to a SD card, it's unable to be read by the Sequencer.