= Does May First/People Link backup my data? =

== Overview ==

Yes - we do back up all data on all of servers and consider the backup an important part of [https://mayfirst.org/membership-agreement our responsibilities to our members].

We have a three-prong approach:

 * All servers have redundant disks. If one disk fails, the server continues un-interrupted.
 * We backup all servers nightly to an onsite backup server that keeps 5 days worth of data.
 * We also backup all servers nightly to an off site backup server that overwrite every night.

== What is backed up? ==

The first step of the nightly backup process is to dump all databases to a SQL file that is stored in every members "backups" directory (e.g. /home/members/MEMBERNAME/sites/DOMAIN/backups). If you want to ensure that our backups are running - you can check the date on that file anytime you like. 

Next - the /root, /etc/, /home, /var/log, /usr/local, and /var/local/ directories are backed up to both the onsite and offsite backup servers.

== Should I back up my own data? ==

Having said that... we always encourage our members to [wiki:member-backup do their own backups]. That's for a few reasons:

 * Our backups are designed primarily for disaster recover (the entire machine goes down). We cannot provide file recovery for accidental deletions or other mistakes.
 * No backup is fool proof. It's ''always'' a good idea for tripe or quadruple redundancy.

Only system administrators can [wiki:restore_from_backup restore data from a backup].