Help with mirror and backup for work

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NME2rules

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Oct 21, 2002
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I need help and advice on how to use my works existing hardware for backups. I do not have IT experience and have inherited the responsibility due to my outspoken nature. I'm a quick learner and am not afraid of technology.
[Questions]
1) What is the best way to mirror files from a NAS onto a Windows 2k8 server?
2) Does anyone have a good reason not to use online backup services like Mozy or Carbonite?

[More Info]
I have decided to use an online cloud backup service to backup my companies data as we do not have the budget for fancy redundancy systems. I plan to use either Mozy or Carbonite. Neither of these services backup clients support Network Attached Storage, even when a drive is mapped. In order to copy peoples data I need to find a way to mirror the SMB NAS every evening onto our local server. The device is an LG N2R1 with 1Tb HD. It is being used in the office for file sharing. I have the option to get the data off via SMB or FTP.
I have never done any type of mirroring. I was thinking of using RoboCopy or Symantec Backup Exec 12.5 which is already installed on the server for tape backups. I haven't yet learned Backup Execs capabilities so I don't know if its possible.
The total amount of data being backed up is about 40Gb. The server being used is a Dell poweredge 2950 with Windows 2k8 server. Any help or advice is much appreciated. Thanks.
 
Last time we evaluated Mozy and Carbonite for our own use,
Carbonite client application just refused to work on our system (crashed or something like that), and Mozy was PITA to administer. That was a couple years ago, so the things might have changed since, but you'd better check this carefully.
 
You should try SyncBackSE, its a robust and inexpensive piece of software that will allow you to copy files from your NAS to your server. There are a billion settings to play with if you so desire. It is more than capable of performing a simple scheduled mirror of files flawlessly.

As for backup solution you should really have a local and remote backup going. If your server or nas blows up, it takes time to get your data from a remote company. A local backup is the way to go, but lets be honest, there is a good chance if your Nas blows up, your local backup will blow up with it. Hence you need the remote for the extreme situations. So... SyncBackSE will take care of the local.

Now the remote is tricky... "40" gigs is a good chunk of data. Your going to want to get yourself a decent company. Mozy and carbonite have issues, always have, always will. They are not very reliable. Shop around on the web, I hear intronis is very good. Currently I am trying out "Backup-Technology" I'll let you know how that works out.
 
40GB takes less than 2 hours to copy to a hard drive. Buy some hard drives. Backup incrementally at the end of every day. Rotate the backups to your house at the end of the day. (At least one copy that is not too old is always at your house.)

If you have several employees taking home a backup and leaving it in their cars, you should be safe enough.

---

We have 3 backups ("mirrors") on site and 2 off site all the time.
 
You have to keep in mind how much time you want to spend plugging in and unplugging devices for a manual backup. The method I proposed is fully automated and you can get an email if something goes wrong.

I'm a little biased agains manual backups, but for people with larger backups 100+GB there really is no other way to do it quickly and efficently. 40GB is still in the range where it is feasible for an online remote backup.
 
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