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Server Backup

Chattonmill

Chattonmill

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We are currently backing up our server daily onto 4mm Data tapes, and seem to be running out of space!
Would an external Hard drive work just as well, are there any drawbacks from doing it this way?
I assume this would be quicker as well.
If anyone has any other suggestions they would be quicker and more secure I would be grateful!
 
I like using external drives over tapes. Just as portable, so can still be taken offsite to protect against fire etc. They are much quicker to use too.

Many drives are now available that are 2TB, so I wouldn't think you'd run out of space any time soon!

Is the server located on site, or is it a remotely housed one? If it's an offsite server, theres also the option on using an online backup service from a separate datacentre. This will often be very quick (due to both data centres having large pipes), and gives the option of the data being kept in a separate area incase of a disaster at your main servers home.
 
The server is on Site and not a particularly large one, big enough for us.
Any suggestions on Drives?
Thanks
Max
 
I couldn't recommend a drive itself - but if possible, I'd get one with eSata (This might require an eSata card being fitted to the server too if you don't have the facility already). They are much quicker than USB etc.
 
External hard drives are fine, although arguably more susceptible to damage than tape, just don't rely on just one backup drive. If the server crashed whilst in the backup process you could then lose both the original and backup - two is the absolute minimum number of drives.
 
Also consider using incremental/differential backup.
You should ALWAYS have a recent off site copy of your data.
Does your backup allow for a bare metal restore?.......

I've just bought some servers, and will be using one of these for backup (built into the server)
 
Could be worth looking at a NAS box to back up to, they usually have the options to set up the hard drives in a RAID configuration which will offer more fault tolerance - they're also portable now so can be moved off site if required
 
How big a back up do you require ?

Verified daily writes to DVDRW media on a monthly rotation schedule could be the answer if it's less than, say, 4.5GB
 
I agree with CEEJAY. Tapes offer you the ability to have your backup spread over a couple serveral days, eg mon-friday.

You could consider running a weekly full backup on a friday and then daily differental backups monday to thursday. The friday backup will eject and the backup should wait (you can set the time out) for the next tape. So on Monday morning or saturday if you work weekends you put in tape 2.

If you ever have a need to do a disaster recovery you use the last full and the latest differential.

if you are going down the hardisk path , get more than one.

Of course you could get a bigger tape drive and new tapes (Costly)

My advice is to try changing the backup routine and maybe use a nas (as well as tapes) with raid to store the files on, that way if your server dies your users will still have access to the data.....
 
Chattonmill said:
We are currently backing up our server daily onto 4mm Data tapes, and seem to be running out of space!
Click to expand...

We've switched to using a NAS box for an online available backup. And then 3.5in USB drives for next level (near site). And then 2.5" USB drives to be held off site for archive.

The 2.5" drives have been chosen over 3.5" due to size and the fact they don't need a separate power supply.
 
Sorry for my ignorance, what is a NAS Box:dk:
I have just got back a hard drive from an old computer that I had, it has been caddied and would give me a 150Gb soloution, if I was backing up say 35Gb how long would that take, I know that a lot depends on the speed of the drive, but just generally would it be quicker than the tapes?
Thanks
 
How much data are we talking about and do you require offsite storage of your backups?
 
Chattonmill said:
Sorry for my ignorance, what is a NAS Box:dk:
I have just got back a hard drive from an old computer that I had, it has been caddied and would give me a 150Gb soloution, if I was backing up say 35Gb how long would that take, I know that a lot depends on the speed of the drive, but just generally would it be quicker than the tapes?
Thanks
Click to expand...
It mostly depends on how you connect it to wherever the data is coming from! USB 2 you're probably look at about 10 minutes or something, under half an hour anyway to transfer about 35GB.

How sorry would you be if you came to use the HDD and it was dead? That's what your backup is for and frankly I'd not trust a drive from "an old computer" for my backups. That said new drives are probably more likely to fail (within the first few days or even minutes!) than reliable old drives...:rolleyes:

Personally I'd only trust a multiple drive backup solution with at least RAID1 or 5 covering you if a drive fails. Most multi-drive NAS solutions will do this.
 
At present it is about 35GB and growing, the tapes just seem so slow and are not big enough, we tried larger tapes, but they dont last long.
As I said I already have a hard drive and so thought that may be a good cost effective way to go.
I can take the Hdd with me in the evenings so that is not an issue.
 
Shude said:
It mostly depends on how you connect it to wherever the data is coming from! USB 2 you're probably look at about 10 minutes or something, under half an hour anyway to transfer about 35GB.

How sorry would you be if you came to use the HDD and it was dead? That's what your backup is for and frankly I'd not trust a drive from "an old computer" for my backups. That said new drives are probably more likely to fail (within the first few days or even minutes!) than reliable old drives...:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

I back up Data every day, so if the HDD was to fail I would know fairly quickly and use the tapes instead!
I have lost confidence in the tapes as some days the Back up works and some days it doent(Always when I need it!) so just want a quick cheap effective soloution!
 
I would be concerned that constant transport of any HDD to and from work would mean that one day it would fail and and you would potentially lose backup data at some point and if you were versioning this could be a problem as you wouldnt just lose one backup, you'd lose them all unless of course you used different HDD units on different days of the week.

What tape drive and tape type are you using? Tape drives neednt be slow and some are easilly as fast as disk whilst being infinately more flexible.
 
We are using an IBM eServer with a DAT72 Drive and IBM 170m DDS tapes.
 
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