Backup up smis.net

[HodgeHi]

I need to build a new server to move the sims.net server onto.

 

However we don;t have a lot of money left this far into the financial year.

 

We would like to use a rack-mount server but the chassis cost and if we need to back up to tape then we will need to purchase a chassis that is over £700.

 

Is there another solution that would be just as cost-effective and easier to implement and manage i.e, no need to keep switching the tapes over. Although i am only suppose to manage the curriculum network i have a strange feeling this responsibility will fall to me.

 

I was just wondering how you guys do your backing up and the cheapest way of doing it.

 

TIA.

[MkII]

Here are some guidelines to what needs backing up if it's of any help..

 

1) SIMS

This folder needs to be backed up because it has all the Examinations Organiser, Nova-T6, Nova-T4, statutory returns and CTF files. It also contains all the files which are/were used by the old SIMS Launcher module and sometimes the FMS database files are located in a \SQL subfolder. The location of this folder depends on how the share for has been set up.

 

3) DOCSTORAGE

This folder is encrypted and is to be found in the root of one of the drives e.g. D:\DOCSTORAGE

 

4) FMS

Pre SQL2005 Express: FMS is using the Sybase SQL Anywhere database engine. With Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express the database will share the same data folder in the same instance as the SIMS database. Pre SQL Express The FMS data is contained in 2 files called SIMS.DB and SIMS.LOG. These are sometimes located in \SIMS\SQL and sometimes not. Go to Control Panel | Administrative Tools | Data Sources (ODBC). Select the System DSN tab and the SIMS32 Sybase SQL Anywhere 5.0 system data source and click on the Configure button. The Database Startup / Database File entry will tell you where to look on the server e.g. d:\SIMSdata\sims\SQL\sims.db

 

5) The mdf and ldf files directly

Open mdf and ldf files cannot be backed up so your backup software has to run a script which will stop the SQL Server, copy the files, then restart the SQL server. Perhaps your backup software is clever enough to do this? Anyway, the location of the files is in the \DATA subfolder to be found in the same location as the \BACKUP subfolder as above. e. g. E:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL$SIMS4019\DATA or D:\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\Data. The files are usually named sims.mdf and sims.ldf

[HodgeHi]

Do you back up to tape or use another alternative.

 

Thanks for the info. It will come in handy when i need to do it, unitl then though i was initially looking at hardware methods i.e RAID with backup to tape for fault tolerance etc.

 

Once again though thanks.

 

See we only have one tape drive which is used to backup up data from (used to be three) two servers. Both use a scheduled NTBackup task to copy the data to a shared folder on the server with the tape drive and then a scheduled task is run after that to copy to tape.

 

Not ideal but working at the moment (hopefully as i have no ideal way of testing).

[MkII]

All our servers are RAIDed in one form or another, we back up to HDD.

 

We have 2 Buffalo Terastations (1tb + 2Tb) across the school that we back up to using robocopy. One for pupils stuff and the other for staff files and shares, plus SIMS. They turn on after school and the backup is scheduled to run after 5pm.

 

We also have a WD MyBook 500Gb for quarterly backups of the whole kaboodle that's taken off site.

 

We gave up on tapes a couple of years ago, mainly because it was so much hard work to retrieve files. Swapping tapes and all the fussing about that's generally involved isn't missed either!

[HodgeHi]

Sounds good to me. How does Robocopy specify additional copies instead of not overwrite? Does it use time stampiing of each copy so as not to overwrite?

 

I've never really used robocopy so don't know its exact strengths and weaknesses. It does sound like the right tool though.

[HodgeHi]

Just downloaded a robocopy GUI interface. Might make my life a litle easier.

[MkII]

I backup to different folders HodgeHi

 

Mon, Tues, Weds, Thurs, Fri1, Fri2, Fri3, Fri4

 

So at any one time we have 4 weeks backed up (plus the quarterly copy)

 

Robocopy just copies over files that change by default, so it's very efficient, and using the MIRror switch deletes files folders that no longer exist.

[HodgeHi]

So i guess you have four daily scheduled tasks (mon-fri) and then a monthly on each friday of the week to alternate between each folder or am i complicating things completely unnecessarily?

 

Its just i don't think the schedules i have for backing up at the moment are optimised. Just as well i don't do the SIIMS at the moment.

[MkII]

Yes, that's it exactly

[HodgeHi]

Don't know if you woul dbe interested in the GUI for Robocopy, but i will post it here anyway for those that fear the CMD prompt.

 

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/technetmag/code06.aspx

 

It's called the Utility Spotlight.