Jump to content

Looking for a better backup solution


Recommended Posts

Guest odenealr@gmail.com
Posted

We currently have 3 servers that we backup (full) every night on tape.

An exchange server, a file server, and an accounting server. The

constantly growing size of each backup is starting to become a pain to

manage (7 tapes total). There is a total of about 300 GB that is

backed up every night.

 

The bottom line is: I need a better solution. I would like to look

into a backup to disk solution, but I want to be able to have a fresh

copy off site every night. Right now I take home the previous nights

backup tapes with me every evening.

 

Is there a better way to do this without spending a whole lot of money

on a remote backup solution?

 

Thanks for your help.

  • Replies 4
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Popular Days

Guest Pegasus \(MVP\)
Posted

Re: Looking for a better backup solution

 

 

<odenealr@gmail.com> wrote in message

news:1188502759.735482.11150@e9g2000prf.googlegroups.com...

> We currently have 3 servers that we backup (full) every night on tape.

> An exchange server, a file server, and an accounting server. The

> constantly growing size of each backup is starting to become a pain to

> manage (7 tapes total). There is a total of about 300 GB that is

> backed up every night.

>

> The bottom line is: I need a better solution. I would like to look

> into a backup to disk solution, but I want to be able to have a fresh

> copy off site every night. Right now I take home the previous nights

> backup tapes with me every evening.

>

> Is there a better way to do this without spending a whole lot of money

> on a remote backup solution?

>

> Thanks for your help.

>

 

You could buy a few 600 GByte IDE disks and install them

in external USB cases. You would probably still need to create

a set of tapes once each week for long-term storage.

Guest Mathieu CHATEAU
Posted

Re: Looking for a better backup solution

 

Hello,

 

on the other hand, have you been digging for huge useless data ?

Now it's backup this is full, but then it will be the server themselves,

then the backup again...

Hopeful, you are entitled to manage this :)

 

You may:

-check and apply mailboxes quota

-check and apply files quota

-Look for files bigger than 50M

-check and apply quota on roaming profile

 

To chase disk spaces, i would recommend this freeware:

http://windirstat.info/

 

 

 

--

Cordialement,

Mathieu CHATEAU

http://lordoftheping.blogspot.com

 

 

<odenealr@gmail.com> wrote in message

news:1188502759.735482.11150@e9g2000prf.googlegroups.com...

> We currently have 3 servers that we backup (full) every night on tape.

> An exchange server, a file server, and an accounting server. The

> constantly growing size of each backup is starting to become a pain to

> manage (7 tapes total). There is a total of about 300 GB that is

> backed up every night.

>

> The bottom line is: I need a better solution. I would like to look

> into a backup to disk solution, but I want to be able to have a fresh

> copy off site every night. Right now I take home the previous nights

> backup tapes with me every evening.

>

> Is there a better way to do this without spending a whole lot of money

> on a remote backup solution?

>

> Thanks for your help.

>

Guest Anthony
Posted

Re: Looking for a better backup solution

 

This is the $64,000 question.

Basically the mechanics requires tape to get large amounts of data off site.

What you can do:

- use Ultrium tape library (more and faster backup capacity)

- use archiving to move off data that does not change, so you are not

backing it up all the time

- use differentials

- replicate offsite and only go to tape if you require an archive

Anthony,

http://www.airdesk.co.uk

 

 

 

 

<odenealr@gmail.com> wrote in message

news:1188502759.735482.11150@e9g2000prf.googlegroups.com...

> We currently have 3 servers that we backup (full) every night on tape.

> An exchange server, a file server, and an accounting server. The

> constantly growing size of each backup is starting to become a pain to

> manage (7 tapes total). There is a total of about 300 GB that is

> backed up every night.

>

> The bottom line is: I need a better solution. I would like to look

> into a backup to disk solution, but I want to be able to have a fresh

> copy off site every night. Right now I take home the previous nights

> backup tapes with me every evening.

>

> Is there a better way to do this without spending a whole lot of money

> on a remote backup solution?

>

> Thanks for your help.

>

Posted

Re: Looking for a better backup solution

 

I see these options available:

-upgrade your tape drive and media (expensive)

-reduce your backup size (purge data, exclude files, etc)

-use full and differential backups (keep at least one full and one diff

off-site). Restores would take both data sets and more time. Only good

if less than half the data changes between full's, but usually less than

20% for most companies (your call in the end though).

 

The last option would be something like this:

-Full, d1, d2, d3, d4, d5, d6 (one job each night)

-offsite: full plus one or more diffs (full+d3 for example)

 

If only 15% of your data changes each week your daily diff's would fit

on one tape. Do a test one night before your usual full backup to see

how much your diff's will be.

 

Full - all data

Diff - all changed data since last full

Incremental - all changed data since last backup of any type (make sure

you understand what this means or you will lose your data and your job!)

 

I'd avoid disk drive based solutions as they tend not to be very

reliable. Also, not all hardware supports USB under Windows safe mode.

 

odenealr@gmail.com wrote:

> We currently have 3 servers that we backup (full) every night on tape.

> An exchange server, a file server, and an accounting server. The

> constantly growing size of each backup is starting to become a pain to

> manage (7 tapes total). There is a total of about 300 GB that is

> backed up every night.

>

> The bottom line is: I need a better solution. I would like to look

> into a backup to disk solution, but I want to be able to have a fresh

> copy off site every night. Right now I take home the previous nights

> backup tapes with me every evening.

>

> Is there a better way to do this without spending a whole lot of money

> on a remote backup solution?

>

> Thanks for your help.

>


×
×
  • Create New...