Your home directory is backed up each day using a ZFS snapshot. You can access your snapshots by looking in the snapshots folder, like this:
ls -al /soe/.zfs/snapshot
We currently keep 7 daily snapshots, 4 weekly snapshots, 12 monthly snapshots and 7 yearly snapshots. To restore a file, simply use the copy command, like this:
cp /soe/.zfs/snapshot/2013-01-01/username/file.txt /soe/username/file.txt
Projects disks that are hosted on either BSD-06 or FS2 are also backed up using snapshots in the same way that home directories are. You can access project disk snapshots like this:
ls -al /projects/foo/.zfs/snapshot
The backup retention of projects disks snapshots depends on which server the projects disk is hosted on. Restoring a projects disk file is very similar to restoring a home directory file:
cp /projects/foo/.zfs/snapshot/2013-01-01/file.txt /projects/foo/file.txt
We run Bacula to back up many smaller file systems, virtual machines and servers. If you would like a file system to be backed up using Bacula, please open an IT Request ticket and be sure to mention that you want it backed up via the BSOE's Bacula program.
Historically, we have maintained tape backups of many UNIX and Linux servers, including user home directories and research file systems. Backing up to tape is being phased out, and we will retain existing tape backups for a period of time for archival purposes. If you need files restored from a tape backup, please open an IT Request ticket. Be sure to include the full file name(s) that you want restored, the oldest acceptable date that you'd like it restored from, and the date when you believe you deleted or improperly modified the file you want restored.