Small Buisness Backup Solution.

Shadowcrit

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Apr 2, 2013
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I been searching through Google for a backup solution that we need but I can't find one.

Here is the current scenario:

We have daily backups that back up to external usb HD's. The whole company gets backed up on 2tb just fine. We also have a server that backs up to a tape drive because back in the day, they said it was fast. Every month, we take one of the external usb HDs, and a tape, move it off site(owners house) and that becomes our monthly backups that is offsite.

We also have a hot site(owners house) with exact hardware where the monthly backups get put on. The idea is that we could move that rack, to a new location, and only lose 1 month of data.

All of our data is PDFs, DOCs, and pictures.

Solution I am looking for:

First, I would like to get rid of the tape requirement. It's just a bunch of text files and a database so it can be transferred to the HD backups via ftp.

What I want is a rack mount file server that can hold 8 HDs. and we transfer our files to it on a daily basis. once a month, take out the HD put in a new one. and move the HD offside.

I am also open to better suggestions of going about our backups.

Our budget is about 2k. then once it's settled, we will duplicate it.

Thank you!
 
Here is what I did for a small business.

1. Set up a "file server" that is running Windows (not a version of Windows Server). I used Windows 7 Pro.

2. Get a $60 a year subscription from Carbonite online backup. I verified with Carbonite before we bought it, and they do not care if a business is using an unlimited backup account if the computer being backed is not running Windows Server.
 
Nate7311:
No. Just 3 Windows Server 2012 standard servers, 1 Server 2000 SP4 server, and 1 SCO Opensever 6.

cyclone3d
We have a 4/4mb symmetrical connection and that's all we can get out here right now. Our 3 T1s are purchased through XO communications.
 
If I only had $2,000 to spend one time on a backup solution, I would recommend doing something with RSYNC or buy two smaller Synology boxes, and put them at both sites.

I will still chose this over crappy Carbonite or Mozy.

Logmein has a backup client that will sync machines from one site to another, and its super cheap. This might be something you want to look at since your budget is tiny for doing backups. This is pretty much RSYNC with a pretty interface, it never touches logmein, just goes between the machines you have setup.

I do not believe any of this is a good way of doing things, as no one ever tests backups, but hey! And what if someone breaks in to the house the other box is at?? I have no clue on the data, and if its not important I guess this is not a big deal.
 
If the boss has similar machine at home, why not rsync every night to his house? You can do that for free.
 
Agreed, or just get a pre-built server (basic i3 is more than fine) from lets say Fujitsu which runs Unix/BSD/Linux/* and use rsync as mentioned above. One concern in my case would be if the NAS used ECC memory or not.
//Danne
 
Does anyone have any hardware recommendations?

Right now, we back up to five external dirves, 1 drive each day. There is no server rackmount solution for that?

thanks.
 
A pre-built rackmount server? Dell, HP, etc. Buy one with enough hard drive slots and go crazy. You won't need much CPU or RAM really for just a storage server. You could even consider nabbing a used one off eBay.

ETA: NVM on the T20, it won't take 8 drives. Do you want a pre-built or something like a Supermicro board in an off-the-shelf case you have to build?

There are a lot of really good suggestions already in the thread.
 
How much NEW/CHANGED data are you generating daily? Unless your generating large amounts then you should still be able to complete you goals using rsync instead of a physical transportation backup solution.

As far as hardware goes, it really comes down to if you want to build your own or buy commercially.
 
How about a FreeNAS box? Could build one relatively cheap with that budget or even pick up a used server like a Dell PE2950.
 
2. Get a $60 a year subscription from Carbonite online backup. I verified with Carbonite before we bought it, and they do not care if a business is using an unlimited backup account if the computer being backed is not running Windows Server.

Having another company hold or have access to your company's data is always a bad thing.
 
Having another company hold or have access to your company's data is always a bad thing.

I agree with this wholeheartedly. I stopped using thing like DropBox and Google Drive on a personal basis last year and switched over to OwnCloud hosted on my own servers.
 
What I do for my clients:

QNap (pick the size you want) - setup a backup Share.
Get ShadowProtect licenses for each server - setup jobs to drop images to QNap.
Install ImageManager (free ShadowProtect product) on a server to manage the Images.
Get another QNap offsite if you want to do Offsite replication OR
Get some external drives - plug into QNap and setup replication to USB drive and take it home every night for offsite.
 
What I do for my clients:

QNap (pick the size you want) - setup a backup Share.
Get ShadowProtect licenses for each server - setup jobs to drop images to QNap.
Install ImageManager (free ShadowProtect product) on a server to manage the Images.
Get another QNap offsite if you want to do Offsite replication OR
Get some external drives - plug into QNap and setup replication to USB drive and take it home every night for offsite.
Shadowprotect is pretty quick but man I've never had ANY luck with their quick-restore. It always fails LOL. After trying to get it working for a while I gave up and just run a windows backup once a week.

You ever have any success with it? (talking about the VHD prep/finalize thing)
 
What I do for my clients:

QNap (pick the size you want) - setup a backup Share.
Get ShadowProtect licenses for each server - setup jobs to drop images to QNap.
Install ImageManager (free ShadowProtect product) on a server to manage the Images.
Get another QNap offsite if you want to do Offsite replication OR
Get some external drives - plug into QNap and setup replication to USB drive and take it home every night for offsite.

I use Amazon Glacier with my Synology NAS. They are by far the cheapest. While Carbonite or Crashplan may cost $60/year, my total backup requirements of critical data (~80GB) costs me $13/year with Amazon.
 
Shadowprotect is pretty quick but man I've never had ANY luck with their quick-restore. It always fails LOL. After trying to get it working for a while I gave up and just run a windows backup once a week.

You ever have any success with it? (talking about the VHD prep/finalize thing)

We do a DR scenario for one of our clients every quarter per their guidelines and have not had a bit of trouble with it yet. Example of the scenario being - HP server fails, move to Dell physical server and strip the drivers etc etc. Back up running in around 30mins or so.

One thing I really do love about SP is how smooth the Quickmount system is for when the one idiot that needs that file back long enough for where ShadowCopy doesnt pick it up and I can get the file in 2mins.
 
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