Tape backup software

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Ratz

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Anyone know of any good tape backup software, free or otherwise. Needs to be pretty robust as backing up 20Tb potentially. IIRC the tapes are Dot 4 or 5.

Servers I understand, tape backup I have never done before :crazy: .
 
You'll need to state what OS you're using, what backup hardware you have, exactly what type of files you want backed up and whether any of them will be in use at the time of backup.

I can't recommend anything personally but you'll need to answer those questions to narrow a package down.

If you're using windows 2003 server the integrated bckup software is based on Veritas Backup Exec and isn't bad.
 
You'll need to state what OS you're using, what backup hardware you have, exactly what type of files you want backed up and whether any of them will be in use at the time of backup.

I can't recommend anything personally but you'll need to answer those questions to narrow a package down.

If you're using windows 2003 server the integrated bckup software is based on Veritas Backup Exec and isn't bad.

Sorry, it was a bit vague.

Windows 2003 Server R2. Backup hardware is IBM 30 cassette library with 800Gb LTO 4 tapes(god knows where I got DOT from :), note to self - do not multi-task) & optical network connection to 20Tb array. File types will be very varied(I work in a Research Institute), but will be data, images - in other words user files - but will be split 12Tb NTFS, 8Tb ext(Linux). My strategy is incremental(daily) & complete(weekly). Files unlikely to be in use at time of backup, but I can't rule this out.

Not sure about integrated backup software, have heard some horror stories - but then I don't know the users concerned!
 
Years ago I would recommend Veritas. Now it is Symantec and should do the trick! it is probably most popular backup soft- expensive!

Now you can try http://www.bacula.org/en/ or netbackup....

Cheers
Chris

btw. under linux it is REALLY easy to do backups!
 
Years ago I would recommend Veritas. Now it is Symantec and should do the trick! it is probably most popular backup soft- expensive!

Now you can try http://www.bacula.org/en/ or netbackup....

Cheers
Chris

btw. under linux it is REALLY easy to do backups!

find / -depth -print |cpio -ocvBdu >/dev/<tape device>


easy??????????


yes, I know we hav tar also!!!!
 
20Tb with an autoloader - you're looking at "Enterprise" class software - we use Retrospect Server www.emcinsignia.com/products/smb/retroforwin/

It is a Windows vesion of a MAC app, so one or two things work in a MAC way - having made a selection you just close a window - there may not be an OK or Apply....it has a good scripting functions and is very robust. However it does require a client running in the OS of the machine being backed up.

Open file backup - always exciting - you're going to need open file backup agents=£££ or $$$ - but forget about open Outlook .pst files they're a real pain.

We dropped tape a while back and now do disk-to-disk with an array of hot swap SATA drives as it got to the point where there were just not enough hours in the day to back up to tape - albeit LTO2.

bin
 
Open file backup - always exciting - you're going to need open file backup agents=£££ or $$$ - but forget about open Outlook .pst files they're a real pain.

We dropped tape a while back and now do disk-to-disk with an array of hot swap SATA drives as it got to the point where there were just not enough hours in the day to back up to tape - albeit LTO2.

bin

Bin,

you have strange backup policy. We do have a lot of data and we are using tapes :) Of course we do have arrays, NASes and SAN as well but to take data off-site we are using tapes.

With good backup software (like VERITAS) you don't have ANY problems with recovering PST files or even single emails! Of course you need agents for SQL, Exchange etc- but that's why Veritas is so good.

Cheers
Chris
 
Bin,

you have strange backup policy. We do have a lot of data and we are using tapes :) Of course we do have arrays, NASes and SAN as well but to take data off-site we are using tapes.

Cheers
Chris
Not really - it's just highly specialised - millions of small files plus virtual server snapshots - the main reason is that in the event of a burn down I can drop a SATA drive into any machine that can support a SATA drive, install the software and restore files substantially faster than trying to source a new tape drive system and running into a bunch of suits with the "oh you want backward compatibility with THAT tape spec $$$$$$" attitude.:)

Not saying you can't back up pst files - just open pst files require an agent which can add costs - something the OP may have not considered:eek:

bin
 
Thankfully pst files are not part of the equation and so this isn't an issue, I don't want to get involved with Outlook in any shape or form.

I'll take the above advice(thank you all) and do some research & testing.
 

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