Slashdot Mirror
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.
Yeah, this has been covered before, as it says. This 'article' reads like an advertisement. Are the editors taking money for this crap?
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
HOW'S MY POSTING? CALL 1-800-POSTING
For people who have a Linux server around the house,
BackupPC is a pretty good solution that can fetch files to backup through Samba and Rsync ! Nice web based interface, too.
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
Good idea. But it is missing WebDAV.
WebDAV can make it very easy to put and retrieve files from the server, using a web browser (over port 80).
Consensus is good, but informed dictatorship is better
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.
I have that exact case/mobo running OpenBSD 3.4 as my home firewall and it's much louder than you would think. The source of the noise is the power supply. Just as loud if not louder than the Enermax 330w on my Athlon system.
The only difference I can find is that I have a Via 933mhz compared to the 1ghz on the Mirra. I had to strip the mounting bracket off of the 3Com NIC I added and secure it w/ double sided tape since it just wouldn't fit otherwise.
Other than that, it's a pretty good investment for me ocnsidering it was $160 at Fry's sans memory and hard drive. Very reliable, doesn't take up much space. Just noisy. Maybe I could find another quieter power supply?
This guy is way out there
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
It's also for those of us who do have the technical expertise, but frankly have better things to do with their free time than build something if a perfectly acceptable off-the-shelf product exists.
That said, whilst reading the article, I was mulling over how to go about building one myself, and what chance I'd have of convincing my girlfriend that while yes, we do have 3 PCs between 3 of us, another one *would* be a good idea...
It's official. Most of you are morons.
What's a backup?
This is a test. This is a test of the emergency sig system. This has been only a test.
Um... SoftRaid.
So are you recommending to use software RAID as your primary/only backup method?
And if software RAID fails? People who know anything about RAID say that it should never be relied upon as a primary backup method. You're still going to have to backup somewhere to another media/hd.
Robert Nagle, Idiotprogrammer, Houston
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.
Interesting. So you can get modded up for copying old posts?
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.
Dave Mirra BMX to this as no matter how hard I tried it just wasn't as much fun raiding a disc as pulling a double backflip over a moving train.
An Eye for an Eye will make the whole world blind - Gandhi
From excellent karma to terible karma with a single +5 funny post...
What are you smoking?
Buy hardware RAID with an automatic rebuild. It's the only way to be sure.
The owls are not what they seem
It's not actually RAID 1, and in fact there's no RAID in the unit at all.
Is this an attempt because it synchs your data? I've seen RAID 1. I know RAID 1. And lemme tell ya, that ain't RAID 1.
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!
RTFM
for the last time people, I am "frodo from middle eaRTH", not "middle eaST".
This device sounds cool, and I've no doubt its easy to use.
However, as others have pointed out, it might be doomed to failure. Based on my observations, people who really do back up their data already have an easy solutions such as optical media, and simple copying between two networked machines.
The people who should buy one of these little boxes are the ones who constantly ignore any and all simple advice about how to ensure their documents, etc don't get hosed (I'm sure everyone here as a story to tell about people like that).
After all, the act of backing up in a home/home office situation is really just a bunch of copy/paste keystrokes, but in my experience getting people to do this is like pulling teeth. I recently had an encounter with a certain family member who was telling me how important his data was, etc etc. I suggested an easy solution for backups, and even offered to add a second hard drive to his PC so he could occasionally ghost the entire hard drive. Despite my continued offers, all I got was "yeah, we shoiuld do that some day, but not yet" Of course, down the road when the hard drive inevitably fails, I'll be asked to become a data forensics guy on 10 minutes notice. Grrrrrrr.
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
Phooey. It says right here that
"You can remotely access your photos and files from any Internet-connected PC, including Macs. Currently only computers that run Windows 2000 or Windows XP are supported for Mirra Backup and Restore within your home network."
So, my wife's PC running Windows 98 and my PowerMac G4 running OS X 10.3.2 could read files that had been backed up from any other machines on our network... except... there aren't any.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
Actually, they aren't required to offer the source code unless they've made changes to anything. It sounds to me like they're just using a small distribution, a web server, and some backup software. It looks to me like all they are charging for is hardware and bundling.
Short version: If I use the linux kernel in a commercial product, I don't need to offer the source to it unless I've changed the kernel to do something special that it didn't do before. And if I write a program that operates on top of the kernel, I do NOT need to release that.
... get one of these
For a lot less money and still have one-touch convienence, less electricity usage, and much quieter operation?
My thoughts exactly. The concept is nice, but there is no way you're going to get joe consumer or joe "tech-savvy" consumer to plop down $400 for a back-up that:
9 60 &loc=10995
1) Takes a glacial amount of time to run (first run is apparently horrendous, but even the incremental back-ups are supposedly laughably slow)
2) Can ONLY take software driven HD back-ups, and cannot serve as a file server/network drop (yeah, that's right, sucks doesn't it?)
I saw a more critical review of the product that discussed testing, etc.
I've been dealing with this now since I really need back-up for my FLAC collection, want it on my network, and need flexibility. You would think that this would be easy... but it seems like no one can figure out how to make a stripped down hard drive with a bare OS for $200.
However, of all the ones I've looked at I will say that the Tritton 120gb NAS hard drive come's REAAAAALLLy close. You can read about it here:
http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=10351
(their web site is apparently down)
-rt
I don't know how any meta-information on files is handled with BeOS. Under OS X, connecting through Samba stores the meta-information in a hidden file in each directory.
What, me worry?
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.