Backup Linux & Windows Servers

[`danny]

I am planning on implementing a backup solution for my servers and I'm juggling a few ideas around. One idea would be to just get a few external usb hard drives and backup the servers onto them. The problem I think with this idea is that I will have to manually plug the drive into every machine to do the backup procedure which could be a pain in the butt. My other idea was to create a NAS with hot swap drives which I could store in my gun safe. As far as NASs go, what are everybody's favorites?

Thanks,

Dan

 

[nitrobass24]

Is this a business application?
What is your budget?
What is most important...ie must haves, nice to have etc..?

 

[`danny]

Yea basically I'll be backing up a Windows Server 2k3 Domain and a few fedora boxes. My budget is around $700 all I need is about 300GB of reliable storage. I am new to NASs so I don't really no much about them, could you please post some ideal NAS solutions that you believe in?

 

[nitrobass24]

You could get something like this

You can then add the HDD's that you want

I would suggest two WD RE2 500gb+ in RAID1

 

[unhappy_mage]

Yea basically I'll be backing up a Windows Server 2k3 Domain and a few fedora boxes. My budget is around $700 all I need is about 300GB of reliable storage. I am new to NASs so I don't really no much about them, could you please post some ideal NAS solutions that you believe in?

What about adding more internal hot-swappable storage to one of the boxes? That way you don't need to pay for another processor exclusively for NAS stuff, and there's more room to grow in the future. And PCs are likely to be faster than the embedded platforms, too. If you have an underutilized box you have a backup box.

 

[nitrobass24]

What about adding more internal hot-swappable storage to one of the boxes? That way you don't need to pay for another processor exclusively for NAS stuff, and there's more room to grow in the future. And PCs are likely to be faster than the embedded platforms, too. If you have an underutilized box you have a backup box.

You make a very good point...This would be the cheaper, faster solution.

 

[tdg]

A hot swap bay and hard drive large enough for your current + future needs would be simple. Install it in one Fedora machine, and use rsync on the Linux machines to backup & synchronize, and then rsync/cygwin or share the drive via Samba and use whatever Windows backup tool you prefer for the 2K3 machine.