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Review of the Mirra Home Backup System
Darth Fredd writes "Having trouble backing up,or just too lazy to take the time? Behold Mirra, a networked RAID 1 volume, backs up everything automagically over the network. Extreme Tech has a review. Mirra uses the insanely popular (and fun) Mini ITX form factor motherboard. Mirra is targeted at the "normal" home and desktop user." We've mentioned the Mirra before.
your average joe end user probably not pay $400 for a back up system. And that is even if they average joe end user has even thought about backups.
It's a little expensive for $400, not to mention that it's got only a 120GB HardDisk. How about those who have more data to backup?
just as a turnkey network file server, it would be great. Unfortunately for geeks it would still be cheaper to use an old PC running Linux
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So why not just do RAID on a main home computer and run automated backups to it? This thing is worthless for the one thing that people really need.... Offsite backup media.
Your house burns down? You lost everything. You have a flood in your basement and your computer gets wet? You lost everything. Leaky celing onto your Mirra? Lost it all. Mirra HD crash? Lost it all.
Thie advertisement on Slashdot is transparent. I got rid of all the other slashdot advertising by using the block images feature of Firebird. How do I get rid of this one?
This product does not sufficiently solve the problem and should not be promoted on Slashdot.
"If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid." - Epictetus
People who can't even be bothered to run Windows Update (for free!) aren't forking out $400 for a backup system for their data.
And most people who do care enough about their data to back it up aren't going to use an expensive, single-purpose device to do it, they'll most likely be tech-savvy enough to roll their own server that does everything this thing does and more.
From the article:
Wouldn't it be great if there was a way to automatically back up your valuable data, share files, and roll back to older versions? Now there is. It's called "Mirra."
I thought it was called a "CD burner". Soon to be called a "DVD burner". Simple, permanent, easy to share, easy to have multiple versions, etc. It's not automatic, but personally, I don't want "automatic" backups overwriting other backups I have on the same hard drive. Besides, CD's and DVDs are much longer lasting than hard drives.
Like the TiVO, this thing is running linux, as such, its just a matter of time before people figgure out how to dd the image from the 120gb drive installed to add larger and faster drive capacities. Given that it is still a Linux PC driven application NAS, the possibilities are endless. The price is a touch high at $400, but it should drop once/if it gains marketshare.
The other thing to contemplate would be to get the image off the harddrive, and be able to create bigger / badder boxes by simply adding the apropriate hardware drivers to Linux. Imagine the software portion being able to control a nice hardware RAID of say 200 GB drives. More fault tolerant and easier (for us Linux folks) to use.
Clinton made me a Republican. Bush made me a Libertarian. Trump is making me question reality.
- Windows 98/Linux Box (primarily Linux used)
- B&W G3 primarily running OS9 (OSX on there too, boot to it maybe once a quarter or so)
- wife's iMac OS9
- a Commodore 64 with Contiki and RR Net
If this is to be labeled a "solution" it should support all of them, right? ;->
"Enjoy what you're doing! If it becomes drudgery, you're doing it wrong!" - Jim Butterfield
This isn't for YOU, it's for your neighbor. Or your uncle, your Mom, or anyone else who DOESN'T have a closet full of overclocked Celeron 366 motherboards, and a working knowledge of Linux.
This is targeted at people who likely paid $400 (grudgingly) for their whole computer. They're going to take one look at this thing, see it doesn't include a keyboard or monitor (ignoring the fact that they're not needed) and dismiss it as too expensive.
There is no future for a device where its target market is too cheap to purchase it.
~Philly
You can't do restores locally, you *have to* do them through mirra.com. What happens when your Internet connection is down? What happens when they get tired of offering this free service, and start charging subscription fees? What happens when they go out of business?
It's pretty bizarre to have all the negatives of off-site backup without offering any of the positives (i.e. off-site backup!).
For the first time in over twenty years, I'm eliminating my "computer room" -- switching instead to the concept of a server closet plus roaming notebooks with WiFi. I don't think I'm the only one.
My server closet currently has a cable modem, a WiFi router with built-in print server & parallel port, and a laser printer. The cable modem and router are the typical small vertically standing self-contained units. I'd like to find storage and backup servers in the same form factor, with a web-accessible admin page -- like the router has -- to avoid the need for bulky keyboards and monitors. At first glace at their website, it doesn't look like Mirra has such a beast -- just units built around a full-size desktop tower.
With two harddisks I would probally not set them up in a RAID, but having them run side by side, mirrored via an rsync based software, such as rdiff-backup, that would give the advantage of having incremental diffs and allowing to recover from an 'rm *'. Sure one has to make sure that it isn't mounted the whole time or else it could get wiped out too just too easily.
How does it help you get back that deleted file from last year? How does it help you take your data to a secure offsite location in case of disaster? Why isn't it cheaper than just buying a second hard drive and mirroring it? Why would anyone use this except people who still run win98? Even those losers could buy a cheap removable hard drive cage and an IDE raid controller, then even take the drive off site.
This is a technology in search of a use.
Vote Quimby!
Mirra is a great idea really. I would like a networked backup solution that I can even access from anywhere on the web. In fact, this is exactly what I'm looking for in a backup product right now. However, I will NEVER buy this product with it's current pricing model. Not because it's $500, but because they charge an extra $100 for an upgrade of 80 to 125GB of storage. A quick check on price watch shows you can get a 160GB HD for $104. It's called RAPING the customer. Mirra can go to hell for that. Here's my favorite quote from their site:
"50% larger than the M-80 for only $100 more."
WHAT A BARGAIN!! ROFL
Any man who afflicts the human race with ideas must be prepared to see them misunderstood. -- H. L. Mencken
Anyway, if your data needs are past this level, you need to think about hiring an IS person, not buying a backup gadget.
What makes this gadget a poor value is the level of safety is provides. All you're doing is copying your data from one hard disk to another. Two disks are better than one, but not that much better, especially if they're in the same building.
Serious backup solutions use reliable offline media. Hard disks are pretty reliable these days, but still not as reliable as a tape or CD. Plus you can stick them in a fireproof box or store them offsite. Add some HSM software and you've got a storage system that's as big as you need it to be.
No self-respecting campus network lacks this technology, but the SOHO user has been seriously neglected. Somebody needs to scale the tech down, and design the usual hand-holding front end so that you don't need a lot of training to manage the media. This has been an issue for years, even when SOHO computing consisted of one or two non-networked system. I guess catering to the low-end user is just not profitable enough.