i am interning for a company right now and am in need of a solution, hopefully you guys can help me out...right now i am in charge of setting up a new file/dhcp/vpn server (a all-in-1 solution) in any case, windows 2003 will be the software of choice since no one is linux savvy. I'm looking at a backup solution where all the files/dhcp/vpn files and settings are backed up nightly and then here's the kicker, transferred to a remote location, so that can be like 20-30gb if info a night. That is a lot i know but it is a necessity. We are looking for a 2-3 tier backup solution. I am thinking, a RAID 1 array, followed by a nightly backup with Symantec Backup Exec (or something similar) then uploading that backup of Symantec Backup Exec onto a remote location. Right now im looking for a cost effective solution in terms of the Backup Software and some sort of way to upload all that information in a relatively short time. The backup software runs $950+ and i really don't need all the features, a simple full disk backup where if the computer fails that we can restore an image onto ANY new server (remember windows for some reason needs to reconfigure itself when a motherboard is changed cause it has happened before where the computer caught fire and the motherboard was replaced and settings had to be replaced etc etc) Also the necessity of some sort of backup solution where it wont take 24 hours just to upload say 20-30gb of info. OK so any help in any area would be appreciated dearly.
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Network/Server Backup
- Thread starter Ouikikazz
- Start date
Well, for a quick and easy backup solution you could simply purchase a BigT LaCie drive (1TB RAID5) external backup media and use the windows backup feature to schedule a nightly disk image. As for backing it up remotely, eh, that would be annoying and would take alot of bandwidth. Here's what I would do.
Get a remote storage site up. If you have to, just rent out some webhosting facility and attach said LaCie to it. More than enough storage to reach back in time. Anyway, instead of doing full nightly backups, do this:
First Time: Full disk image, complete backup.
Monday - Friday: differential backups (only backup and send over the wire what has changed, no need for daily completes)
Friday: complete weekly backup.
At the end of the month: a monthly complete backup.
Basically what this does is that you have daily changes backedup at the end of each day. At the end of each week you make a master copy. At the end of the month, if all is well, you can produce a monthly backup. Dispose as necessary. This lets you reach back VERY far and to specific days without taking up too much disk space. Also, it limits the general network overhead of having to upload 30GB a night. This way it'll probably only be a couple hundred megs at most.
Let me know if what I said didnt' make any sense and I'll try to clarify it a bit more. Oh, as a side note, I have about 15TB of storage arrays, most of which are Lacie drives. They're fantastic. I've had ONE fail in 6 years, and it wasn't even a complete failure. It simpy lost redundancy and had to have a couple platters replaced. The data was still intact even. FAntastic investment.
Get a remote storage site up. If you have to, just rent out some webhosting facility and attach said LaCie to it. More than enough storage to reach back in time. Anyway, instead of doing full nightly backups, do this:
First Time: Full disk image, complete backup.
Monday - Friday: differential backups (only backup and send over the wire what has changed, no need for daily completes)
Friday: complete weekly backup.
At the end of the month: a monthly complete backup.
Basically what this does is that you have daily changes backedup at the end of each day. At the end of each week you make a master copy. At the end of the month, if all is well, you can produce a monthly backup. Dispose as necessary. This lets you reach back VERY far and to specific days without taking up too much disk space. Also, it limits the general network overhead of having to upload 30GB a night. This way it'll probably only be a couple hundred megs at most.
Let me know if what I said didnt' make any sense and I'll try to clarify it a bit more. Oh, as a side note, I have about 15TB of storage arrays, most of which are Lacie drives. They're fantastic. I've had ONE fail in 6 years, and it wasn't even a complete failure. It simpy lost redundancy and had to have a couple platters replaced. The data was still intact even. FAntastic investment.
im not a fan of tape backup cause it does have a relatively high failure rate. plus to return to normal it can take up to 24 hours to recover the tapes from the location so its kind of 2 flaws about it which are both bad...i believe tapes have a 30% failure rate
right now my limitations are a WAN connection at the main office (NYC) which is 1.5down/768up so kind blah in terms of upload, i'm waiting for FIOS to be available for a 15down/2up connection which is faster but i don't think it'll be fast enough really but whatever...
so what i'm aiming for is 3 lines of defense backup:
1 -RAID 1
2 - Off site differential backup to another computer (w/Symantec Backup Exec) (daily differential and bi weekly/monthly backup)
3 - Synching the two servers from Maryland and NYC together so both server would be identical and if one goes down the other will be ready to reanimate the other
i read over a dozen sites of virtualization and it doesn't seem like it'll be cost effective for the company today, its still a small company of 10-15 client workstation and 1 server is doing the task of DHCP/VPN/File Storage and hasn't really been pushed to the limits except when the client load is full. It has room to survive...but like i said they have experienced one fire on the server already (the issue was the cooling fan uh caught fire in the rack HAH!) and yea the file backups were saved but all the workstations needed to be reconfigured and the server too because of the settings not porting over to the new motherboard with windows requiring a new install and such. I still don't fully understand virtualization so if it is my solution please could someone explain how that can help me with off-site backups? The company is growing, and will be moving in 6 months to a bigger location (new office) so any solution needs to be easily trasnferred to a new site as well.
right now my limitations are a WAN connection at the main office (NYC) which is 1.5down/768up so kind blah in terms of upload, i'm waiting for FIOS to be available for a 15down/2up connection which is faster but i don't think it'll be fast enough really but whatever...
so what i'm aiming for is 3 lines of defense backup:
1 -RAID 1
2 - Off site differential backup to another computer (w/Symantec Backup Exec) (daily differential and bi weekly/monthly backup)
3 - Synching the two servers from Maryland and NYC together so both server would be identical and if one goes down the other will be ready to reanimate the other
i read over a dozen sites of virtualization and it doesn't seem like it'll be cost effective for the company today, its still a small company of 10-15 client workstation and 1 server is doing the task of DHCP/VPN/File Storage and hasn't really been pushed to the limits except when the client load is full. It has room to survive...but like i said they have experienced one fire on the server already (the issue was the cooling fan uh caught fire in the rack HAH!) and yea the file backups were saved but all the workstations needed to be reconfigured and the server too because of the settings not porting over to the new motherboard with windows requiring a new install and such. I still don't fully understand virtualization so if it is my solution please could someone explain how that can help me with off-site backups? The company is growing, and will be moving in 6 months to a bigger location (new office) so any solution needs to be easily trasnferred to a new site as well.
believe tapes have a 30% failure rate
[\QUOTE]
Believe what you want, in my last 6 years of working with LTO tapes, i have had 1 backup fail. One!
Raid is not a backup solution, anyone here will tell you that.
FibreChanMan
[H]ard|Gawd
- Joined
- Aug 18, 2001
- Messages
- 1,908
LTO is definitely more reliable than SDLT. Geez I hate SDLT. Those tapes and drives are soooo damn sensitive. One big thing I hate about SDLT is the tape leader/clip design. At least the old DLT leader clips in the drives had a possibility of being fixed/replaced to get a couple more backups. From looking at an LTO tape and an SDLT tape, SDLT tape leaders look like a half-assed attempt at being LTO tapes.
As for backup scenarios, lots of companies are going to disk-to-disk-to-tape scenarios these days. It keeps a good backup or two onsite, and a good offsite backup with the tapes being in a disaster-resistant (i'd hate to say "proof" here) facility like Iron Mountain. Whatever you do, keep it documented and organized, because Sarbaines-Oxley Act audits I hear are a bitch. I haven't had to go through one myself since I work for a hardware vendor, but lots of my customers talk about them.
Luckily, since it's only 20-30gb, even if you did fulls, you would only need one tape a night, unless you do auxillary/parallel style (tape to tape) backups. So, you wouldn't have to get an autoloader/library and worry about more mechanical/moving parts.
As for backup scenarios, lots of companies are going to disk-to-disk-to-tape scenarios these days. It keeps a good backup or two onsite, and a good offsite backup with the tapes being in a disaster-resistant (i'd hate to say "proof" here) facility like Iron Mountain. Whatever you do, keep it documented and organized, because Sarbaines-Oxley Act audits I hear are a bitch. I haven't had to go through one myself since I work for a hardware vendor, but lots of my customers talk about them.
Luckily, since it's only 20-30gb, even if you did fulls, you would only need one tape a night, unless you do auxillary/parallel style (tape to tape) backups. So, you wouldn't have to get an autoloader/library and worry about more mechanical/moving parts.
Ouikikazz I run a company that does this exact thing (offsite backup)
There have been quite a few topics on the issue in the past few months and some other forum members have been interested enough to give our software a try.
For your 20-30GB I can maintain 2 offsite servers. The primary is located in LA, and replicates in real time to another facility in Phoenix.
For that kind of storage I charge $20 a month. No I don't charge for bandwidth, no I don't charge fees for restoration, or anything hidden. $20 is what you pay, never anything more.
The only thing our software doesn't support at the moment is a bare metal restore (ability to restore the entire OS) but it's a feature we are working to implement.
If you want to check it out (I give 30 day trials to anyone that wants it) shoot me a PM.
If you do a search for offsite backup on the forum you will find some other threads I have replied to that gives even more information about what other people are doing for their companies when they are tasked with coming up with an offsite solution.S
There have been quite a few topics on the issue in the past few months and some other forum members have been interested enough to give our software a try.
For your 20-30GB I can maintain 2 offsite servers. The primary is located in LA, and replicates in real time to another facility in Phoenix.
For that kind of storage I charge $20 a month. No I don't charge for bandwidth, no I don't charge fees for restoration, or anything hidden. $20 is what you pay, never anything more.
The only thing our software doesn't support at the moment is a bare metal restore (ability to restore the entire OS) but it's a feature we are working to implement.
If you want to check it out (I give 30 day trials to anyone that wants it) shoot me a PM.
If you do a search for offsite backup on the forum you will find some other threads I have replied to that gives even more information about what other people are doing for their companies when they are tasked with coming up with an offsite solution.S
for the tape backup: this company has NO system admin to do a manual tape backup daily/weekly etc. it is way too busy for the owner or senior members that are there till 8pm at night to do the backup either...so i guess i forgot to mention it needs to be a somewhat automated process as well.
for the tape backup: this company has NO system admin to do a manual tape backup daily/weekly etc. it is way too busy for the owner or senior members that are there till 8pm at night to do the backup either...so i guess i forgot to mention it needs to be a somewhat automated process as well.
Backup Exec would be a good choice for you as far as software goes for automation. It can perform Backup to Disk( or Removal Disk) as well as Tape. You can use a really large hard drive as your nightly routine, and send your Backup to Disk files [They're essentially like virtual tapes on the hard drive] to your offsite server.