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Nightly backup alternatives

By ibillybibilly ·
Currently, I am running a differential backup on SuperDLT Monday through Thursday on eleven servers. A full backup is run each Friday night and that tape is taken offsite (rotated every 12 weeks) I'm having some issues with the backup running very long--six hours for the "differential" M-TH and eighteen hours "full" on Friday night. I'm wondering if it is worthwhile backing up the entire servers, which is what I'm doing now. By "entire servers", I mean every file on every server, including the registry. I'm thinking, that, if there is some catastrophe with a server, we would probably have to rebuild it from the ground up and would probably only reload data, not application or system files, from the backup tape. If there is a problem that is somewhat less than a full catastrophe, having some program files (and perhaps system files) on a backup tape might prove helpful, but I don't know if it's worth it.

I want to follow industry best practices but my backups are getting too big and taking too long. Anyone have any thoughts about this? If it's best to keep backing up all server files, are there some better methods than what I'm employing? Dual tape drives? I?m on a very limited budget, as most of us are.

Thanks!


Jeff


ibillybibilly@yahoo.com

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RE; Backups

by Black Panther In reply to Nightly backup alternativ ...

First of all can you consider 'purging' data.
If you are talking Windows here -- can you get the users to do a cleanup? Have you placed limits on email kept by each user etc etc

Has the file system and number of users grown since the system was first implemented? How long have you had the current system? Management need to realise that every 3 to 5 years it needs to be upgraded / replaced especially if the company has grown and users are keeping more information.

Otherwise the main emphasis for the backup is to make sure the data is backed up, followed by any programs ( If Unix ) and then system files.

Let management know the consequences so you are covered in the event of a failure.

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