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File Server Structure

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by infosecmn

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I need to restructure our files. Right now we are keeping so many duplicated files because of the difficulty of our remote offices retrieiving and sending files up to our main office. It has become a nightmare. We have a VPN over DSL but the backup takes 5 days! We are not that big of a company and I use Veritas with a 5 cartridge autochanger.

My goal is to find a good way to keep files local that are used regularly (have them archive other files to the main file server up here monthly). However, I don't know of a good way to keep the back up centralized and the file structure to maintain any semblance of organization.

Any help would be appreciated.

C

9 replies

by systhine from tampabay.rr.com

I would like to better understand you situation, as what kind of data you are storing (is this accounting, order system), how frequently must the data be exchanged between offices, must each office have access to new data on both ends?

My first suggestions would be incremental backups, directory replication, compressing files before backing them up over the network or possibly on-site backup at the remote office.

by infosecmn

These are project files, client files, presentations and CAD files (way too large to try and work with over the wire), and our project managers move between all offices although mostly they work out of their own locations. I have thought about onsite backup but then I have to rely on project managers to change tapes etc. :( I would like to do a normal back of the entire network once a week and incremental or differential backups daily, however the full back up now takes 5 days over the wan. Idon't understand directory replication over the wan very well, would that require mirroring ?

TIA

by gigelul

Hi,
Maybe "robocopy.exe" from resource kit, will help you to maintain/sinchronize important files/folders between these two locations.
This can be used in scheduled tasks and have many usefully options.

by systhine from tampabay.rr.com

Directory Replication is NT's "Briefcase", it mirrors directories in real-time. This would increase overall traffic across the link, but would spread out the transfer times required to keep copies of files on both ends. If you create a file on one end and drive over to the other, it will be there when you arrive. Of course, this is also much more efficient than accessing files on shares across the WAN.

Directory Replication can be a bit of a pill to get up and running, but here's some information on it:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q101602
(there is a sub-article listed for WANs)

( I sure hope you don't share an Internet connection over your VPN:) )

I've used Directory Replication to keep copies of entire websites on multiple backup servers to allow for failover, it's very good for this purpose, as the websites were updated frequently, by muliple non-privileged users.

by Member 35772270

Sounds like it is time to expand. Have you considered using a tower/rack of tape drives or maybe even a Storage area network server (SAN's). Additional hard drives in another server to back up to.

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