Guest Chris White Posted March 5, 2008 Posted March 5, 2008 Hi all, Our data is very precious as i'm sure most companies data is, however I am struggling to get my head round the proper way I should be using NTBackup to make the most of the backups. In terms of space and room to move with backups, i'm spoilt for choice with loads of storage space available (3 x RAID1 Mirror Set of 1TB Hard Disks). I want to make the most of the NTbackup features. Would it be acceptable to do an Incremental on Sundays and Wednesdays, and Daily Backups between those incrementals. At the moment I'm only doing Incremental so the previous days backup is overwritten with new changes. We have disks offsite for backup from a while ago but I want to move away from overwriting the backup so often with Incrementals (every night). Any suggestions would be fantastic. Thanks. -- Chris White United Kingdom
Guest Brian Cryer Posted March 5, 2008 Posted March 5, 2008 Re: Backups - Need Help / Solution. "Chris White" <ChrisWhite@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:A9932333-8AF0-4C90-8FEA-2F4B38C87F29@microsoft.com... > Hi all, > > Our data is very precious as i'm sure most companies data is, however I am > struggling to get my head round the proper way I should be using NTBackup > to > make the most of the backups. > > In terms of space and room to move with backups, i'm spoilt for choice > with > loads of storage space available (3 x RAID1 Mirror Set of 1TB Hard Disks). To be effective your backups should be to some form of removable media. Think big disaster such as a fire which destroys your RAID. I would suggest removable USB disks. Once you have your backup set-up and working then cycle your disks offsite at least once a week. > I want to make the most of the NTbackup features. > > Would it be acceptable to do an Incremental on Sundays and Wednesdays, and > Daily Backups between those incrementals. Depends on how much data you are backing up and to what. I do a full backup each week-night. The only reason for doing an incremental backup is if the full backup takes too long (or I suppose if you don't have space on your backup device.) Know what you are backing up to before you worry about whether you need any incremental backups. I would have thought that if you needed to resort to incremental backups then a full backup on a Saturday or Friday evening (assuming no-one is using the server over the weekend) and incrementals Monday to Thursday. > At the moment I'm only doing Incremental so the previous days backup is > overwritten with new changes. We have disks offsite for backup from a > while > ago but I want to move away from overwriting the backup so often with > Incrementals (every night). So what are you backing up to and how frequently do you take these off-site? (or aren't you currently?) The only other significant thing to say about backups, is don't be tempted to exclude anything from the backup. Another worst case scenario is that you need something from the backup but oops it wasn't included in the backup. -- Brian Cryer http://www.cryer.co.uk/brian
Guest Chris White Posted March 5, 2008 Posted March 5, 2008 Re: Backups - Need Help / Solution. Hey Bob, Thanks for the info so far. We currently have copies offsite of all data up until a week ago. The plan was to rotate the disks each week. So we only lose a week at worst case. We backup everything at the moment. Nothing is excluded for the reasons you point out. One thing we have loads of is space on the storage server. I have also created a Virtual server (using MS VSR2SP1) on the storage server, to manage 8 of the 16 bays. This also allows me to use the other Ethernet port on the motherboard effectively and utilise the Servers hardware during the day. I was amazed how easy it was to setup the Virtual Server and now I can manage my Storage Server to how i'd like. People use this sytem a lot, 7 days a week various people are on remote access, even till late sometimes which makes it very tricky for me. But this is a business that just made a move up from the typical Small Business bracket. Its usually only 1 or 2 users checking mail or something but it does mean I have to let my backups run later than i would like due to people still working. We are also getting a nice Cisco Catalyst 3560 switch soon to replace the Netgear FSM Layer3 one and increase the performance of the network and enable Port Channeling. This is something we do need ASAP and will be sure to boost performance on backup operations. Thanks Bob! Regards, -- Chris White United Kingdom "Brian Cryer" wrote: > "Chris White" <ChrisWhite@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message > news:A9932333-8AF0-4C90-8FEA-2F4B38C87F29@microsoft.com... > > Hi all, > > > > Our data is very precious as i'm sure most companies data is, however I am > > struggling to get my head round the proper way I should be using NTBackup > > to > > make the most of the backups. > > > > In terms of space and room to move with backups, i'm spoilt for choice > > with > > loads of storage space available (3 x RAID1 Mirror Set of 1TB Hard Disks). > > To be effective your backups should be to some form of removable media. > Think big disaster such as a fire which destroys your RAID. I would suggest > removable USB disks. Once you have your backup set-up and working then cycle > your disks offsite at least once a week. > > > I want to make the most of the NTbackup features. > > > > Would it be acceptable to do an Incremental on Sundays and Wednesdays, and > > Daily Backups between those incrementals. > > Depends on how much data you are backing up and to what. I do a full backup > each week-night. The only reason for doing an incremental backup is if the > full backup takes too long (or I suppose if you don't have space on your > backup device.) Know what you are backing up to before you worry about > whether you need any incremental backups. I would have thought that if you > needed to resort to incremental backups then a full backup on a Saturday or > Friday evening (assuming no-one is using the server over the weekend) and > incrementals Monday to Thursday. > > > At the moment I'm only doing Incremental so the previous days backup is > > overwritten with new changes. We have disks offsite for backup from a > > while > > ago but I want to move away from overwriting the backup so often with > > Incrementals (every night). > > So what are you backing up to and how frequently do you take these off-site? > (or aren't you currently?) > > The only other significant thing to say about backups, is don't be tempted > to exclude anything from the backup. Another worst case scenario is that you > need something from the backup but oops it wasn't included in the backup. > -- > Brian Cryer > http://www.cryer.co.uk/brian > > >
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