Optimal backup solution

I have become a proponent of using removable hard disks for backing up small servers and stand alone Business PCs.

I use removable hard disk trays that insert in frame connected to IDE controller. A 120GB drive and caddy should be about $100.00. Frame with caddy will run $15.00 to $40.00 depending on material, cooling fans, and "brand markup."

Backups run essentially at hard disk speed. Disks are easy to remove and insert. Disks are protected and stored in caddy.

Haven't tried with Backup Exec but it's sibling, Backup My PC, supports automated backup to hard disk.

Not as convenient as an autoloader, but heaps cheaper, fast, and relatively convenient.

Dalton

removable drives fine for user friendly daily backups. but what about historical. what bout fact that hd still number one failure point. high prob of failure and you want to make it your backup? use a autoloading tape system. on a dedicated box. it won't be the only tape backup in your network either. write down all the software you use that produces data that you need backed up. i am trying to get at exchange, sql server, other mail server that may not be as easy to backup as you think. to figure out your backups start by pondering how you would recover under different circumstances. virus. hardware failure. building disaster. hacker. rogue admin. boil it down to numbrs. how much data i got now. how much more i think i got next year. in 5 yrsr. how much does it cost company if network down one hour, one day. how long can i be down if x happens. how far back historically do i want to go? you cannot cheap out on this. you will pay the piper one way or another. perhaps you wonder maybe you are smarter than guys that spend for the fancy tape systems. you think that they do that because they do not understand stuff well enough and just throw money at it so they don't have to work. it is you my friend who should avail themselves of dell et al sales and let them educate you and get you set up. you can fall in holes you have not thought up yet. make a budget. it will take money. and build the updates and increasing storage requirement in your yearly budget imho. my 2 cents is start taking that stand now and keep bringing it up. test your backups. if your really have no money get 3 or 4 removable drives. consider robocopy batch files. rotate them and look for new job as eventually you will get caught out and if you have not been hammering home inadequacy of backups you will be held responsible...

I agree with SgtShultz that an autoloader is your best solution
and that in the long run cheaper than most other options.
Willcomps idea of removable hard Drives is a great backup
solution at a good value. The thing is that I find for most people
hard disks never make it off site, or at least not wothout a drop
or bounce now and then. Yes tapes fail too but are better for
long term and short term because the tape cost is so low you
can have a larger media pool for rotation. If an autoloader is out
of budget then get a good tape drive and pay for the Backup
Exec. remote agents as needed. Also plan on any other agents
such as Exchange, SQL or Open File.

A Quantum internal DLT VS160 with 5 media at 80 /160 is about
$1300. Not that bad even with the extra tapes you'll need for
protecting the company data, books, email, etc.

Good Luck,

razz

You need to check that your speed and duplex are the same in both the servers an dthe switch. That may take care of your speed issue. The first answer is correct disk backups are a lot more efficient but unless you have a backup software that allows you to do so, you are stuck with putting and removing the disk to get it on tape. My recommendation would be to use net backup (or any program that would allow you to backup to disk)to write to a removable disk in one of your servers or some other machine. Then you can backup that machine at any time to tape and you still have a backup in the local disk so you can recover from disk and not tape. If you want better performance you should look into stripe disks (array) on both the server and the backup disk.

I do a hybrid of the two.
I have 4 servers that need to be backed up but don't want to deal with paying or maintaining 4 tape drives.

I have an IBM x230 ($400) with a promise controller card ($50) and 4 IDE 120 Gig drives.

I have a directory structure setup so there is a directory for each night, and in that are subdirectories for each server. This gets backed up over the LAN at night.

I then have a tape drive setup on just that one server and backup the directory for that day.

This allows for a few things. Full backups and incramental backups.
It also gives me tapes daily to take off site (I have 10 I rotate) as well as gives me a quick way to restore files when it is only a file or two that is lost.

Much quicker to restore from the hard drives than from the tape, but the tape is available in case the place burns down.

Note, backups on tape are straight copies so I can access the files as I need. Compressed when I put them on the tape only.

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