Backup Solution for Gigabytes - help please

[hexter]

I need to backup my servers at work.

Someone please recommend a manufacturer or vendor of tape backup units.

Looking to backup about 50-100 Gigs

I need at least 20 gigs daily, the balance (my user folders can be backed up weekly).

Thanks in advance.

~ Hexter

 

[PDSAjax]

PM me, we can discuss in more detail. I am a freelance IT consultant and will be able to advise and possibly supply on this one.

I need to backup my servers at work.

Someone please recommend a manufacturer or vendor of tape backup units.

Looking to backup about 50-100 Gigs

I need at least 20 gigs daily, the balance (my user folders can be backed up weekly).

Thanks in advance.

~ Hexter

 

[Papi Chulo]

Why could you not use a hard drive for backup?

 

[Mack Bolan]

http://www.symantec.com/business/pr...7EAF3304D0A45E20C30DA746?pcid=2254&pvid=296_1

Veritas make two backup solutions. NetBackup is for Data Centers and Backup Exec is for small shops or single server enviroments. Check out the above web link

 

[hexter]

A better description of the problem might yeild me a better solution.

I have a business/accounting commercial package that has about 12 Gigs of data. I want a rotating set of backups for this (probably tape). Why a rotating set.... Some data problems are not evident until a day or 2 or 3 after. If data corruption occurs the singular backup such as a hard-drive will also have the corrupted data on the backup. Days of backup means I could go back to a few days and find the good data and selectively restore if possible.

I would like to retain a monthly tape backup for the year.

Secondly I need about 80-100 gigs of user folders backed up less frequently. Something like weekly would work.

What I guess I am really looking for is a recommendation on an affordable TAPE solution.

DVD R/W drives don't scale to the amount of data I have.

I want to spend around 1000 - 1500 dollars.

 

[Mack Bolan]

With Backup Exec and NetBackup, you would setup a policy that would schedule a weekly full backup of the necessary drives/dictories and then on other nights, you would schedule an incremental backup of those drives/dictories. Don't forget you should do a full backup copy of data that would be kept offsite (for business recovery purposes).

 

[benstt]

A better description of the problem might yeild me a better solution.

I have a business/accounting commercial package that has about 12 Gigs of data. I want a rotating set of backups for this (probably tape). Why a rotating set.... Some data problems are not evident until a day or 2 or 3 after. If data corruption occurs the singular backup such as a hard-drive will also have the corrupted data on the backup. Days of backup means I could go back to a few days and find the good data and selectively restore if possible.

I would like to retain a monthly tape backup for the year.

Secondly I need about 80-100 gigs of user folders backed up less frequently. Something like weekly would work.

What I guess I am really looking for is a recommendation on an affordable TAPE solution.

DVD R/W drives don't scale to the amount of data I have.

I want to spend around 1000 - 1500 dollars.

Not sure if you can get what you want for that. Drives plus controlling software, to back up a bunch of servers, will add up.

Check with your server vendor first, to see if there is an add-on option that you can use for your model. That will give you an idea of the price range of the drives, their capacities, etc. If they don't have it, check www.hp.com for external drives you can attach. You have to compare their interfaces with what you have available (SCSI, etc). The little DAT drives (160GB?) are likely the cheapest. They're old technology these days, I was surprised they still sell them.

Backing up multiple servers will complicate your solution. Check out Veritas/Symantec Netbackup and Backup Exec for software to control the backups, backup over the network, etc.

 

[l69norm]

.....I have a business/accounting commercial package that has about 12 Gigs of data. I want a rotating set of backups for this (probably tape). Why a rotating set.... Some data problems are not evident until a day or 2 or 3 after. If data corruption occurs the singular backup such as a hard-drive will also have the corrupted data on the backup. Days of backup means I could go back to a few days and find the good data and selectively restore if possible. I would like to retain a monthly tape backup for the year. Secondly I need about 80-100 gigs of user folders backed up less frequently. Something like weekly would work. What I guess I am really looking for is a recommendation on an affordable TAPE solution....

There's 3 things to look at:

1. Are you archiving business data to tape to be restored at some later date for possible auditing? In this case, you need to look at how long you are legally required to retain the tapes. Some businesses are need 3 years worth of data, some need 7 years. If you are in this category, then you have to be able to restore that archive tape somewhere 3 (or 7) years from now.

You'll want to use a current tape backup technology now like LTO-3 so it can grow with you, even if it's over-kill for now. The worst thing that can happen is you use an older technology like SDLT for 2 years, convert to something else then find you can't restore those old archive tapes when you need to 4 years from now.

Same thing with the tape backup software.

2. Check that you have enough speed to match the the tape backup window time frame. Some companies run one application during day and do their accounting/inventory batch jobs at night. On some systems, you might have only a couple of hours to perform the backup within. Ensure that you have a way to change those tapes in the correct order, even if you aren't there. You might what to use a tape changer so you can load a week of tapes at a time.

3. There may be a requirement to protect the off-site tape with encryption. For example, you wouldn't want to lose an off-site tape with all the client's banking information.

 

[Powershot]

LTO-2 sounds about right, LTO3 can get pricey.. get about 8 blanks... one for each day of the week, rotate them through and do off site rotation just in case. Backup your DB/transaction logsto a different drive spindle/array than the live db, then back that up to tape.

Backup your data files once a week fully then do differential backups the rest of the week.

The backup software built into windows 2003 server should meet your needs.

We archive month end db backups to optical disc (they fit fine when compressedi, as well as keep all of them rar'ed on hard disc for a full year just in case.