What backup software to use?

[wesleyw]

400gb compress or not compressed?


Wes

[mrforgetful]

That's a good point, I was presuming it was compressed but thinking about it more it might not be.
Unfortunately I can't see all the properties of things at the minute as 'Data set is in use', basically my Disk backup is being copied to my tape. Never been happy with any of this set up to be honest, but y'know what it's like, no input just use what I'm given!

[wesleyw]

If it's compressed and your looking for a superloader then LTO3 would be a good bet 400gb (800gb compressed) per tape.

Wes

[mrforgetful]

It's LTO2, 200Gb / 400Gb Compressed that I'm using at the minute.

I found an option for Software compression that's turned off but I'm sure the drive supports it in hardware.

How much am I looking at for what you suggested Wes?

[wesleyw]

You should be able to squeeze more onto the tape hopefully probably 300gb if you're lucky. The loaders are very useful especially if you have a overspec'ced backup procedure like the one I wrote out lol. Every night a backup for 5 days (a week ) two weeks worth of tapes then a backup at each half term and full term then one on a six monthly rota means we have a good selection of backups we can go back to!

Wes

[mrforgetful]

Thanks for all your help, what's the price?

But what if you have a fire?

[wesleyw]

You always take the newest tape offsite and store the one before it if possible in a fire proof safe. As for the price it depends on the amount of slots 1500 - 3000 usually worth it though especially if you have a good software backup solution.


Wes

[pinemarten]

"But what if you have a fire?"

run like f*ck...

no only joking

you should always keep a copy of the tape at home and rotate them weekly!

[Grommit]

Can NTbackup do SQL Servers and Open Files ?

and if I do a server to to disk back up what would the command line be if I wanted the files to be written over weekly in NTbackup ?

[ajbritton]

NTBackup cannot backup 'live' SQL servers, but if you are going to script everything then you could either stop the SQL server prior to backup and start it again afterwards or better still, you could run a TSQL script to backup the databases.

AFAIK, NTBackup can only backup open files in conjuction with ShadowCopies.

[broc]

Originally Posted by Grommit

Can NTbackup do SQL Servers and Open Files ?

and if I do a server to to disk back up what would the command line be if I wanted the files to be written over weekly in NTbackup ?

I found the easiest way to get started was to use the NTBACKUP wizard. It will generate the backup command for you. Click on the advanced button to get more options (compression, verify, replace files etc) and set the schedule for running the backups.

If you search in Windows Help & support for NTBACKUP you will find the syntax and there are also some command line examples to look at.

[Dos_Box]

The problem with NTBackup is that it is pants. It will forget to do schedueled backups. Lose media from its' backup sets, and generally not do what it is supposeds to. I use Dantz (EMC) Retrospect 7.5, as it is simple, quick and its proactive backup system means that it will backup many jobs over a period of time rater than trying to do them all at once. SImply configure your jobs, make them proactive, and the system will do them as and when it can.

[broc]

Originally Posted by Dos_Box

It will forget to do schedueled backups. Lose media from its' backup sets.

Interesting... Over the last 2 years I have not had any problems with NTBACKUP doing simple volume backups to files located on a remote server HDD. We backup around 250gb each night with NTBACKUP & it runs like clockwork on Server 2003. Our daily SIMS server backup to AIT tape was set up by the LEA MIS team to use NTBACKUP too & that has never failed (apart from when the tape drive decided to give up).

[mrforgetful]

I find Retrospect to be the worst Backup software to do a restore with that I have ever used, it takes forever as it checks everything so many times and it's unnecessary. It checks through everything it has in that snapshot before you can look through it. You choose what you want and it rechecks it has it. It will then check to see where it can restore to, then you find where to put it and it rechecks it again, before taking a split second to restore the file.
Avantis was quick, open it, browse through the tree ala Windows Explorer, click restore. Simple.

[plexer]

The problem with NTBackup is that it is pants. It will forget to do schedueled backups. Lose media from its' backup sets.

Not when coupled with backupassist it won't

Now if I got a quid for everytime I mentioned it I'd have about a tenner by now

Ben