There is often confusion between data backups and data archives. But each has its own distinct purpose.

-          Backups are created for the short-term, tactical retention of data. Backup is a copy of data that can be used to restore the original should it be lost or damaged. Think of it as a safeguard for data that is being used, but backups are not tamper-proof.

-          Archives are designed for the long-term, strategic retention of information. An archive can be a single or a collection of records specifically chosen for long-term retention and future reference. This data is normally no longer actively used but is intended to retain a complete set of business records. Archives are created as well in order to help organizations in migrating from one platform to another. Archives are tamper-proof.

The difference between the two is that a backup is a copy for disaster recovery while an archive is the original that was removed from its initial location and then is housed elsewhere for long-term retention.

Both are essential.

The need for both is crucial.  Backup is a critical best practice because things can go wrong. Patches do not work as they are supposed to; upgrades can fail, hard drives can and do crash; and malware can destroy data. Everything needs to be backed up including email servers, file servers, desktops, and more. Regular backups are essential to restore servers and other platforms to a known good state.

Archiving is also necessary. Business records need to be preserved … regulators and courts demand them. Even your own corporate policy probably requires retention of records. It is necessary to preserve corporate records to satisfy regulatory, legal and other obligations.

Recommendations

Both backing up content and archiving are critical best practices. There simply is no substituting one for the other. Once you have a clear picture of the distinguishing characteristics between backup and archiving, you should be better equipped to choose the right storage solution for your needs.

Look for the next blog in this series which will cover the benefits and challenges with Email Archiving.

And remember, your comments are most welcome. Tell us about your experiences with backing up and archiving.

Backup Is Not Your Archive, Clear Differences. is a post from: Codero dedicated hosting blog

To access the new features, log into the Cloud Portal through Codero Server Portal. Then, just click on Create a new VM, and select cPanel or Plesk from the drop down on Step 1.  Continue with the setup process and your new vm will be ready shortly.

In addition, a new MS Windows cloud template featuring MS SQL is also available now and can be found in the Featured Templates section.

If you have questions or comments about your new virtual machines, please feel free to contact Codero Support or contact us through ServerPortal.com.

Codero Cloud Now Offering cPanel /Plesk. is a post from: Codero dedicated hosting blog

Here are five security ideas you may not know about to secure your SSH server:

1.)    Brute Force Detection software should be installed. Often attackers will try brute force methods to learn your password and then attack your server. Installing a good brute force detection software helps neutralize these attempts at your sever the minute they start.

2.)    Root logins are unnecessary. Under normal circumstances, there is no reason to allow direct root logins to your server and take the risk of having your root account directly exposed to the Internet. By restricting root logins, you make it harder for outside attackers to gain access. The system administrator can become root once logged in using su or sudo.

3.)    Use chroot to restrict users to their own/home directories. Linux and Unix servers have permissions in place that prevent a normal user from damaging your files but it does not stop them from seeing those files. So if you use chroot, you can keep those users within their own directories.

4.)    Demand secure passwords and periodic rotations. When you are the system admin, you can require computer users to adhere to your password strength requirements and also demand that users change their passwords now and again.

5.)    Prevent staying logged in. Also as the system admin, you can set the timeout interval in the SSH configuration file so users do not stay logged in. This can keep people from sneaking into user accounts that are always logged in.

Do you think you can use any of these ideas in the future? What tips do you have that you can share with other system admins? Please let us know!

Does Your Security Have More Bark Than Bite? Security Tips For System Administrators. is a post from: Codero dedicated hosting blog

The latest enhancement is to our convenient Server Portal. We’ve updated the Codero online portal once again … this time to spruce up the dashboard.  The dashboard will now display more information regarding Codero customer services. For example, customers with dedicated servers can now view:

-          The most recent time the server was rebooted
-          Your bandwidth usage
-          The processor for your dedicated server
-          An overview of the IP Addresses displayed under the Service description     
-          Invoices and Orders now merged together in one box
-          A New Message function available at time of login. A box is displayed which      allows you to click and view the message. Mandatory messages will still bring up a pop-up box.

To display these features while you are in Server Portal, simply click on the informational icon to the right of your dedicated server.  Here you will also see the latest Twitter updates from @Codero and @CoderoNOC which can also help you keep abreast of news about any upcoming network maintenance or system incidents.

Please continue to let us know how these newest refinements help you with your hosting and feel free to comment with feedback on any other customer portal features you would like incorporated.

New Dashboard and More Server Portal Improvements. is a post from: Codero dedicated hosting blog

The 3.0 will be released close to the 20^th anniversary of Linux in August this year. He had said earlier there was no major change in the release, but now it appears there is. In addition to being faster than 2.6.39, the Linux 3.0 kernel will not have a number of features. These include the Reiser4 file-system, the VIA KMS/DRM driver, an accelerated Poulsbo/PowerVR DRM driver, multi-GPU rendering and numerous other items.

Do you welcome a faster release? What are your thoughts?

Linux 3.0 Races Ahead of 2.6.39 To Be Faster. is a post from: Codero dedicated hosting blog

A report by Forrester Research showed small- and medium-sized businesses and enterprise organizations planned to spend at least 5% more on a Disaster recovery (DR) plan in the next 12 months.  DR spending is up due to increased awareness. We can now better identify, measure and quantify risk. Businesses are also realizing the economic impact of disasters and events. There is also less tolerance for downtime and data loss which is yet another reason DR plans are more commonplace today.

Codero is now helping businesses of all sizes increase the reliability of their backup strategies through Disaster Recovery (DR). The off-site backup solution can help ensure business continuity of mission-critical applications, data, hardware and communications in the event of an unplanned service failure or disaster. Codero’s off-site disaster recovery solutions bring you much needed peace of mind.

Disaster Recovery can be created by simply adding EVault off-site storage to a server or by adding EVault off-site storage to load balanced servers. Customers can set their own data backup schedules and can pay for only the storage used.

Putting DR in place ahead of time means you do not have to be subject to random external events. Entrepreneur, author and popular blogger Seth Godin has some pertinent opinions on “how to fail.” He reminds us about the common misunderstanding about failure…  “if you do not plan for it, it won’t happen.”  Right.

What are some of your plans? What are you looking for in a DR solution? What aspect of a DR solution are most important to you?

Business Continuity Is Ensured With Extra Layers of Protection Like Disaster Recovery. is a post from: Codero dedicated hosting blog

It was designed for cluster administration where the same configuration or commands must be run on each node within the cluster. It’s just one of many tools out there available for your IT toolbox.

ClusterSSH is a Tk/Perl wrapper around standard Linux tools just like XTerma and SSH so it will perform on most any POSIX-compliant operating system where libraries are available. Instructions on how to install and configure it can be found here.

ClusterSSH may not be considered a complete replacement for having a configuration management system when you’re responsible for maintaining a lot of machines. But when speed is of the essence, or if you are performing prototypes, it sounds like it

Efficient Tool for Linux System Administrators. is a post from: Codero dedicated hosting blog

There are a range of security solutions which can help protect the confidential data you store on our servers. Managed Firewall is the most popular Codero offering used for this. It acts as a protective barrier to stop attacks before they can damage a hosted server and your data. Managed Firewall is completely dedicated to your environment and automatically blocks unwanted incoming traffic to your server based on pre-configured rules. It guards against service interruptions giving you the highest level of security and ensuring business continuity is never impacted.

With Managed Firewall, you’re essentially buying peace of mind by taking a proactive approach against attacks. You can download a data sheet for more information.

Safeguard the Security of your Transactional and Customer Data. is a post from: Codero dedicated hosting blog

The engineers here at Codero have spent months meticulously planning the new offering so it meets your need for scalabilitiy and flexibility. Codero’s beta offers the ability to change the resources allocated to an existing Cloud, whether you want to increase or decrease the processing power, RAM or hard drive space all through our online Cloud Portal.

Once you learn more about our beta, you’ll see it is the way Cloud should be…affordable. There are two flexible plans for our new on-demand service:

1.)  A pay monthly plan
2.)  And an hourly plan

The hourly plan allows for paying only for the storage space and outgoing bandwidth that you actually use.

We have a product roadmap to continue to add features, but we’re keeping it flexible based on user feedback so let us know what you think about Cloud beta.  You can comment below and tell us what features you would like to see in the Cloud.

Cloud Public Beta is Here…the Way it Should Be…Affordable. is a post from: Codero dedicated hosting blog

Open source software vendor, Black Duck, organized projects into its Top 10 Open Source Rookies of the Year. For developers, system administrators and open source enthusiasts, it’s an interesting list. It shows examples of new communities that are growing…in particular in the areas of mobile and cloud. They reviewed and scored thousands of projects.

For a long time, businesses have used applications developed by communities of programmers which were freely available for anyone to use but mainly for basic infrastructure functions. Now, many businesses are using open source software to make applications they think will give them a competitive edge in the marketplace.  Gartner conducted a 547-company survey of software usage trends which showed companies now know they can customize the code to meet their individual needs instead of paying a commercial software vendor to do it for them.

Over half of the survey respondents said they had adopted open source software (OSS) as part of their IT strategy. Gartner identified these key categories where IT organizations use OSS:

• Data management and integration
• Application development, integration, architecture, governance and/or overhaul
• Business process improvement or re-engineering
• Security, risk and/or compliance
• Data center modernization and consolidation
• Virtualization

What projects have you created in OSS? Why did you choose OSS?

Help for Open Source Projects. is a post from: Codero dedicated hosting blog