[BioPython] bioperl/biopython backups

[Chris Dagdigian]

Figure its probably time for me to chime in :)

Right now our DAT drive is non-functional, unless I can get Compaq to help
me out or we find a Linux/Alpha guru to help sort us out it probably will not be usable
until we do the upgrade to Redhat 6.*....the basic problem is that the system
sees it as a scsi device but I cannot access/use it as a tape drive. It probably
can be fixed with a new kernel but that is proving difficult to compile.

I have been backing up the box occasionally via 'rsync' which makes it
pretty easy to replicate filesystems and directories. Basically 99% of the 
important stuff on our box is sitting in the /home filesystem. Locally installed
software should all be resident in the /usr2 filesystem.

What I would like to do until we get the DAT drive working is reach out
to some of the folks who have offered us hardware resources in the past--
people like David States and Bobby O. Anybody with enough disk space
and access to  'rsync' should easily be able to set up a remote mirror
of our critical data -- there will be an initial hit the first time the system is replicated
but afterwards rsync is smart enough only to send the diffs and new files down
the wire.

Any volunteers out there who would be able to ocasionally mirror some of
our filesystems? All that is needed is rsync, disk space and decent bandwith. People
who are interested should drop me an email.

(my talk of mirroring does not mean that we intend to have multiple repositories
and websites scattered all over the net...all that I'm talking about here is having some
volunteers archive copies of our critical data on one of their local hosts.)

--chris