# And this is why you should ALWAYS backup your VPS!



## Raymii (Nov 6, 2013)

TL;DR: A startup goes el cheapo on a $5 Digital Ocean droplet, hardware node has a RAID 5 dual drive failure, Startup loses VPS but has backups, gets $500 from Digital Ocean and still bitches about it.


We have recently launched Listboard.it on a single instance 
in DigitalOcean to start contacting people who had too many 
tabs opened on their browser and were interested on a solution. 
We received over 240 invitation requests and accepted some to 
start experimenting with it. Our active users were few so one 
instance was more than enough. 

[...]

Our server was dead. Just like that. 

Altough, quite nice of Digital Ocean to credit $500. They are not obligated to do so.

http://dfernandez.me/articles/digitalocean_lost_our_data/


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## ComputerTrophy (Nov 6, 2013)

They're lucky they kept backups. You can just buy a cheap OpenVZ "storage" VPS just to back up your files and it won't burn a hole in your pocket either.

Unlucky for DO to get a dual drive failure. It's unlucky enough to get a drive failure on a node.


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## DomainBop (Nov 6, 2013)

> As we use RAID5 this is an often unrecoverable situation.


DigitalOcean markets themselves as a cloud provider and they use RAID5 local storage instead of a SAN? ROTFLMFAO.


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## devonblzx (Nov 6, 2013)

DigitalOcean isn't a true cloud provider.  The only thing "cloud" about DigitalOcean is having hourly billing.


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## ComputerTrophy (Nov 6, 2013)

devonblzx said:


> DigitalOcean isn't a true cloud provider.  The only thing "cloud" about DigitalOcean is having hourly billing.


That's not really 'cloud' at all, to be honest.


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## tchen (Nov 6, 2013)

Provisioning api makes up for the lack of a SAN, to be honest.


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## concerto49 (Nov 6, 2013)

It's true we need backups but I think most got sucked into the "cloud" DO advertise.


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## fahad (Nov 6, 2013)

At least they are not costly and they are a big company which is a safety factor. They can't change domain and company name and reappear.


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## scv (Nov 6, 2013)

Considering they hand credit out like free candy I doubt that means much.


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## MannDude (Nov 6, 2013)

scv said:


> Considering they hand credit out like free candy I doubt that means much.


Exactly. I literally got started with $10 free credit. I think I matched it at one point by actually deposting $10 from my debit card... then someone in IRC a week ago posted a URL to $60 free credit... so I loaded that up...

So in short, I've spent $10 of 'real' money for roughly $80 worth of service. Not bad.

On topic though, backup. Make copies of those backups too from time to time. Make local backups everynow and then too.

Would rather have too many backups than not enough.


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## fahad (Nov 6, 2013)

MannDude said:


> Exactly. I literally got started with $10 free credit. I think I matched it at one point by actually deposting $10 from my debit card... then someone in IRC a week ago posted a URL to $60 free credit... so I loaded that up...
> 
> So in short, I've spent $10 of 'real' money for roughly $80 worth of service. Not bad.
> 
> ...


What is the code ???


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## MannDude (Nov 6, 2013)

fahad said:


> What is the code ???


https://www.digitalocean.com/promos/campaigns/50

Doubt it still works, though. Give it a whirl.


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## johnlth93 (Nov 7, 2013)

MannDude said:


> https://www.digitalocean.com/promos/campaigns/50
> 
> Doubt it still works, though. Give it a whirl.


I read that it only available for those who received the email, it never work for me and i din't receive the email.


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## MannDude (Nov 7, 2013)

johnlth93 said:


> I read that it only available for those who received the email, it never work for me and i din't receive the email.


It worked for me, and I didn't get the email. I just followed the URL when it was posted in IRC. <shrugs>


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## mojeda (Nov 7, 2013)

It wasn't meant to be public, so when DO caught on they killed it.


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## fahad (Nov 7, 2013)

MannDude said:


> https://www.digitalocean.com/promos/campaigns/50
> 
> Doubt it still works, though. Give it a whirl.


That is for some particular accounts


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