Data Observation Network for Earth (DataONE) is the foundation of new innovative environmental science through a distributed framework and sustainable cyberinfrastructure that meets the needs of science and society for open, persistent, robust, and secure access to well-described and easily discovered Earth observational data
Best Practice:
To avoid accidental loss of data you should:
- Backup your data at regular frequencies
- When you complete your data collection activity
- After you make edits to your data
- Streaming data should be backed up at regularly scheduled points in the collection process
- High-value data should be backed up daily or more often
- Automation simplifies frequent backups
- Backup strategies (e.g., full, incremental, differential, etc…) should be optimized for the data collection process
- Create, at a minimum, 2 copies of your data
- Place one copy at an “off-site” and “trusted” location
- Commercial storage facility
- Campus file-server
- Cloud fire-server (e.g., Amazon S3, Carbonite)
- Use a reliable device when making backups
- External USB drive (avoid the use of “light-weight” devices e.g., floppy disks, USB stick-drive; avoid network drives that are intermittently accessible)
- Managed network drive
- Managed cloud file-server (e.g., Amazon S3, Carbonite)
- Ensure backup copies are identical to the original copy
- Perform differential checks
- Perform “checksum” check
- Document all procedures to ensure a successful recovery from a backup copy
Description Rationale:
To avoid data loss, and to retain information held in earlier versions, it is valuable to back-up your data at frequent intervals and in multiple locations.
Additional Information:
