How do they do it?

Long update...Breathe deeply...

How do people normally backup entire computer systems and restore them on different hardware when systems crash? It seems like it would happen all the time. Yet there is neither very many tools to do such a thing, nor wads of documentation to scour on the internet regarding this when things go wrong. It seems that in today's world, it's easier for someone to build a new system from scratch, and then restore any user data on the system from a backup, rather than restore an entire identical system from a backup.

I had the opportunity to do such a thing this week except that the computer didn't crash first. We are moving 4 servers to Florida next month, and we had to build 4 temporary servers to keep operating here in California while the real servers are in transit to Florida. The temporary servers had to be exact copies of the real servers so anyone using them wouldn't know that they were on a different system. If fact the goal is to move the servers without causing any impact. However, to get back to my point, nobody seems to build exact copies of servers on different hardware anymore. It wouldn't be an issue if the temporary servers had identical hardware to the real ones. Since all this has to be done after hours as well, it was a few long days this week. Jeff and I worked 12 hours on Wed, 15 hours on Thurs, and 12 hours Today - and that was only for 4 systems. Even after we did that, there are still some problems with the temporary servers - stuff didn't all copy right or something. But at least the applications seem to be working. And there is overtime $$$ for the extra hours.

On another note, Gas prices seem to creep even higher and Oil has hit a record high of $57 a barrel. This is even after OPEC said they were going to put another 500,000 barrels per day into the market. You'd think that an increase in supply would lower oil prices. But this is a different market now. OPEC no longer has control over the market by their traditional supply/price fixing, profits now are king at the expense of consumers. It seems like we are repeating history. In the past, the end of an oil price boom does not come from an increase in OPEC output to provide a surplus supply, but rather a recession in the oil consuming world. High oil prices cause inflation, which cause rising interest rates and eventually the falling profits and stock markets. Eventually there will be an economic crisis in this or other high demand countries which will slash oil demand and reduce prices to something more in line with what consumers can handle. No oil price boom has ever ended without causing a recession in the oil consumer countries. The real question is how long it will take for this to happen and whether it will be gradual or sudden. In the mean time, I guess I just have to continue to whine and complain about the price at the pump and grumble even more as it goes higher. Bush's plan for exploring the Artic for Oil is good in that it will make us less reliant on OPEC and foreign oil, but it won't do much to end this era of high prices we're in.

I haven't written much about our vacation since we returned. I hope you all enjoyed the pictures. They turned out wonderfully, and Napa is such beautiful country. Of course we visited in the spring when wildflowers were blooming and everything was green for California. We toured several wineries and tasted the different varieties of wine bringing home a number of bottles we just loved. We stated in the cutest Bed and Breakfast that was a historic Victorian mansion. To make it even cuter, they were filming the show "Trading Spaces" at the Bed and Breakfast where they traded with another B&B to redo one room. On our way home we traveled through San Francisco, and on down HWY 1 along the coast. That is a stunning drive if you've never done it before. I could go on and on for hours about the trip, but I put it better in speech rather than in print.