Server Backup & Storage

[JEWilson]

Looking for suggestions for HDD based server backup.
Considering options for a small network of 50 users.
Ideally, would want SATA HDD based backup unit to fit server.
Alternatively, would consider NAS with removeable storage
across LAN but suspect there may be bandwidth issues

Please advise

Thanks for your consideration

[mockingbird]

Re: Server Backup & Storage

NAS across LAN would be slow, but how else would you do it?

If you do NAS, I recommend running ZFSguru on a dedicated box.

[JEWilson]

Re: Server Backup & Storage

Looking at ioMega Rec for Server

[mockingbird]

Re: Server Backup & Storage

Not a good idea. If you want something cheap, just build a server with a RAID 6 ZFS array. How you backup the data is another story, but if you want redundancy, that is the way to go.

You can even buy old rackmount or tower HP/Compaq servers for a ridiculously low amount with hot-swappable drives and redundant PSUs. All you need is a little knowledge of Linux and ZFS.

[smason]

Re: Server Backup & Storage

How much data?
What software?
If it's intelligent software it will only be moving changed file, so LAN bandwidth won't be that much of an issue.

I do a combination of disk-disk and disk-tape multiple servers over a gigabit LAN, around one Terabyte and it's only a few hours a night.

That said, you still NEED an offsite copy.

[mockingbird]

Re: Server Backup & Storage

What's the big deal of making an off site copy? Just stick a removeable drive cage in there and clone the array every month or so.

[dood]

Re: Server Backup & Storage

At work, we back up everything directly to LTO4 tapes, with the exception of my Exchange environment. Backupexec doesn't support granular restores directly from tape, so I backup the Exchange environment to a NAS, then to a duplicate to tape. That way, I have about 7 days of granular restores, plus the tape restores. We back up daily, weekly, monthly, yearly. All kept offsite after being written.

2 weeks of dailys
12 weeks of weeklys
24 months of monthlys
7 years of yearlys.

Of course, they're all just a snapshot in time. If something is created and deleted during the course of the backup period, it won't be on the tape (with the exception of Exchange, which keeps things for 30 days regardless)

As far as speed goes... I get around 1GB/minute over gigabit to my NAS. But the data is being transferred twice (I think) since the job is run from our backupserver. Data goes from Exchange to the backupserver to the NAS. Backing up from the NAS to the tape runs at around 1.8GB/min

[mockingbird]

Re: Server Backup & Storage

Tapes are good, but the system is expensive.

[dood]

Re: Server Backup & Storage

Yep... LTO4's are $50 or $60 each in bulk. The drive (a single cartridge external drive) was $1600. We're now looking at an autoloader with a single internal drive for around $6k.

Definetely not small business stuff. SATA drives are cheap, and you can set them up hot-swap to be able to take them off-site. Everything ultimately has its cost, though.

[weirdlookinguy]

Re: Server Backup & Storage

Have you considered trying something new and going AN4L?

http://www.sansdigital.com/accunas/an4l.html

[dood]

Re: Server Backup & Storage

Hehehehe... I forgot about the AN4L

I'd be afraid that once I tried the AN4L, I wouldn't want anything else...

[Phaihn]

Re: Server Backup & Storage

What's the big deal of making an off site copy? Just stick a removeable drive cage in there and clone the array every month or so.

you would need a off site copy of your data in case the same thing that destroys your data in the first place also takes out the copy.