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Yep, iSCSI is SCSI data inside an IP packet and runs over standard networking. I'd recommend a 1Gb minimum link between the QNAP and the Backup Exec server if possible.
I was going to explain how to set it up, but QNAP have done it for me: QNAP - Resources - Tutorials - How to create and use the iSCSI target service on the QNAP NAS
:)
Spot on, thanks. Do most rely on this method for backup now? Im still a little wary of relying on a hdd based box to backup to. Im so used to having tapes and having them securely stored in a fire safe it seems so much safer than relying on drives as a backup.
What do you think would be the best procedure if i wanted to keep my master backup, dailies and weeklies on the the dumb nas but also keep a tape backup of the master and weeklies?
Most people don't have the time/space/money for tapes these days, so a purely-disk-based backup solution is entirely acceptable. Having said that, the arguably best-of-both-worlds solution is B2D2T - backup to disk to tape. You'd do your regular daily backups to disk overnight which are nice and quick, then you'd copy those backups onto tape (via a method that doesn't put any additional load onto your main network) during the day. You might onto put your weeklies onto tape, or you might have the time/space to put your dailies on there too.
I'd suggest your weekly full and daily differentials go on to the SAN. They'll be quicker and you'll be able to do a full restore from disk if needed without having to play guess the tape.
I'd then suggest you either find a way to do B2D2T, or do an additional backup straight to tape.
How often you backup to tape is up to you, but if you had to do a full backup from tape (rather than just restoring an archived file), how long would it before before the backups were as good as useless? For example, if you did tape backups on a Sunday and everything died on a Friday, how would your finance/HR/whatever department feel if you told them you'd lost almost a week of work? Obviously ideally you'd backup everything all the time, but that's not really practical, so try to find a balance between what people want and what you can reasonably manage.
If the QNAP is iSCSI connected to the BE server and the tape drive is also connected to the BE server, you should be able to push the backup data to tape on a schedule that suits you.
Thanks Duke, all sorted now with our new box, went for an HP X1600 and will soon be buying a qnap to use as a backup box in a different block. Your insight has been most helpful and is much appreciated. Hopefully the way you have suggested will work for us.
Thanks again.
James
Cool, sounds good! :)Quote:
Originally Posted by jjohnsoncantell
Just post in here or make a new thread and PM me if you get stuck, I'm sure someone will be able to help.
Good luck with it all,
Chris
I've put a number WD NAS drives in primary schools. They work really well as media archives and are much appreciated by schools who've been trying for years to declutter their managed network drives.
Brett