Back Up Headache!

[tarquel]

That covers the backup of data but what about disaster recovery?

Or are you using something like Backup Exec to backup the data / image onto those HDDs?

Thats something i didnt mention, but it would be good if the said software enables you to make a set of backup tapes to restore the server fully - AD & everything, although I imagine we arent that lucky lol

I have about 35GB of pupil data and about 30GB of staff usage [need to grill the staff considering there is less than 30 of them lol].

The admin server only has about ~20GB of data needing to be backed up.

Actual system [windows, apps installed, network shared apps, etc] and pupil/staff data/work in total, I probably have about 100GB on the curriculum and ~30GB on the admin.

Not much to whack onto external drives and store, but if i can get something I can use to backup the whole lot periodically, that would be so much better.

Nath

[mrforgetful]

The HDD are only for disaster recovery and are taken off site each week.

Non disaster recovery tends to be taken care of by shadow copies.

All data, System States and Exchange is backed up using ntbackup.

SIMS database is the only thing using any other software and it's our old Retrospect 6.5 to the old Backup Server HDD then Retrospect 7.0 transfers it to tape - this is done daily and taken off site daily.

[tarquel]

Good stuff

But can anyone answer my questions in my earlier post about whether it can do the things I list?

Cheers
Nath.

[andyrite]

I run Backep Exec 10D. You will only need one copy of this plus agents for what you want to backup. (exchange etc etc) You just install the agent on the system you want to backup.

I've got a 3.3TB Eonstor raid array. I backup everything to the disk first then duplicate to tape. Works really well as you can restore files without having to find a tape. The tapes become backups of the backups.

It will do most of the things you want apart from replace your robocopy script.


If you need any more info let me know

Andy

[zag]

Bakupexec will do everything you require. If it is a new solution definitely go with hard disks, tapes just don't cut it any more.

Backupexec runs agents on servers/computers. Simply select the computer from the list and click the remote computer running the agent. From there you can backup, files, directories, shares or the complete system state (ad, registry, services ect). I have done a recovery from this and it was simple and worked perfectly. The server was up and running in a matter of hours after a complete hard disk failure in its original form. Just installed 2003 server again, and restored over that in restore safe mode.

Other questions -

- Just run an inventory on any tape and you can restore it's contents
- It has drivers for virtually any tape drive, or you can use the manufacturers if that doesn't work.
- Backupexec has an exchange feature that you have to pay extra for. It can backup an entire mail store, or even individual mailboxes, or public folders
- And best of all it does not have the daylight savings time bug that stops scheduled backups every time the clocks go forward or back

[tarquel]

So is having all the data from all the drives and the systemstate enough to do a complete restore then?

I've never been 100% on it - never had the time to look I guess


Well, anyway, as far as the software goes, I've had a quote for Symantec Backup Exec 11d for what we have, and it came to about a grand, so along with the deputy / ict co saying No to the software purchase before I had got the quote, and the head who previously said yes, but now knows that its gonna be more than a few hundred...

I'll guess I'll have to continue to fiddle with my ntbackup scripts....

mrforgetful's idea seems most logical now....

40GB external HDDs must be cheap yes?

buy five and rotate them each day for overnight backup - and if small enough I can keep them in my small fireproof safe.

Just a shame to waste the tape drives in both servers.

If we had a external HDD system going, then I could still use the tape every term to run a backup I think.

EDIT: A quick look reveals this:

http://uk.insight.com/apps/productpr...%3D%26SB%3Dplh

The HDD in the server is only a 36GB SCSI so should be ok with a 40GB? [single backup on each drive]

Hope you are following this, because I'm not sure I am now lol

Ta.
Nath

[rob_coles]

We looked at a back up server , the idea of having a load of big hd's,

we've finally got the backup to a reasonable size (working :P )

Thanks for your tips/suggestions.

[Grommit]

Yeh, assuming you dont use R2's file screening or anything similar, a quick scan with Nasty File Search for MP3's can soon reduce your backup nicely

Nasty File Search seems not to work...

Back on topic... I had the smae issue.. always battling the tape size and massive amounts of house keeping for data to fit onto the 150GB tape... .... then Media Studies started!!... blew my tapes out of the water... heh heh

So I bought a 2TB Raid 5 Buffalo TeraStation for £650 and problems solved :-)

http://uk.insight.com/apps/productpr...%3D46%26y%3D11

1/ What needs to be backed up for a DC with FMSO roles to be rebuilt if the Server dies and you have just a raw copy of Server 2003 freshly installed ?

2/ What is Disaster Recovery ? what the difference between a Backup and Disaster Recovery.. as I hear some Network Managers have other Servers stashed somewhere or replicating ?

3/ SIMS whats the best way and program to protect SIMS so if it dies or the server dies how would it be restored on another server or totally restored on the original server?

[zag]

So is having all the data from all the drives and the systemstate enough to do a complete restore then?

Yes, just click the sys-state option on any computer, and backup the c: drive. When you come to restoring it, install a blank 2003 server, then restore the c: drive bits, then run "safe mode restore" by pressing F8 on boot, and restore the systate bits. It really is nice and easy and worked perfectly for us when our main DC went kaput.

Well, anyway, as far as the software goes, I've had a quote for Symantec Backup Exec 11d for what we have, and it came to about a grand, so along with the deputy / ict co saying No to the software purchase before I had got the quote, and the head who previously said yes, but now knows that its gonna be more than a few hundred...

Show them what would happen if you lost all the data, quantify the loss of teaching time, money to get it restored, and time. Then explain backupexec will fix all this. It really isnt worth struggling with the NT cut down version.

buy five and rotate them each day for overnight backup - and if small enough I can keep them in my small fireproof safe.

No need for full backup everynight, we do a full every 2 weeks and incremental each night. This puts less strain on your server and reduces the risk of it malfunctioning

Just a shame to waste the tape drives in both servers.

Tapes = 1990's

[DMcCoy]

There is nothing wrong with tapes!

I have found tapes to be reliable, fast and flexible. I have up to 35 full backup instances between two servers. I backup to a NAS as home and it is at least three times slower than my lto2 drive. How many HDDs do you keep offsite, how many does it need for a full restore?

How far back do your backups go? I have 12 monthly tapes, 4 weekly, 4 daily shadow copy *and* last years tapes.