Online Backup Solutions

[DJ-1701]

I've just been asked to look at Online Backup Solutions for our data as an extra point of redundancy.

 

I was wondering what companies fellow Edugeekers use in their schools and recommend any caveats I should be aware of?

[FN-GM]

I don't use it, but you could get Google Drive with unlimited storage and use Rclone to copy up the data?

[ADMaster]

I don't use it but I read a while back about Amazon glacier.

https://aws.amazon.com/glacier/

 

Cheep to backup, costly to restore.

 

I have my backups on a server in a different building across the site.

 

so semi online / private cloud.

[Mistert89]

We use Gigasoft as they are uk and DFE approved. Not cheap, so we use for business critical. For bulk, we have a NAS at another school, with ip Control so that it can be addressed from limited locations (two other fixed ips). Works well and automated. Keep user data weekly, and server backup images. Cheap bulk storage, and runs weekly, spread over the nights.

[Michael]

I use Azure Backup.

[Dave_O]

I use Azure Backup.

 

How much is this costing you per annum and what mechanism are you using? The last time I did this (just under a year ago using DPM), I had to stop after 2 months as it would have cost in excess of £8000 for the year.

[Michael]

Cloud GRS - 782GB of data backed up, three increments per day, costing approx £57 per month or £684 per year.

[Mistert89]

Synology DS216 or DS416 plus 8TB drives at another site. Pay once.

[mukz]

Cloud GRS - 782GB of data backed up, three increments per day, costing approx £57 per month or £684 per year.

 

That actually sounds like a awesome deal!

[Dave_O]

That actually sounds like a awesome deal!

 

£895 per year per 1Tb is an awesome deal? We backup 4Tb of encrypted data using a QNAP box and cloud sync to a OneDrive account. Costs nothing

[mukz]

Compared to what we are paying at the moment it is defo awesome. We do not backup more than 1TB (critical data) to the cloud.

We have a 3 Tier backup which consists of disk, offsite disk at a sister school and the cloud.

 

To be honest i would prefer not to have critical data sitting on a OneDrive account but hey thats just me. Each to there own

[tj2419]

People that use OneDrive or Google drive isn't there an upload limit for the speed making it unrealistic? We tried once using cloudberry and Google drive but after a few GB Google drive kicks you onto a really slow upload due to the volume.

[Dave_O]

To be honest i would prefer not to have critical data sitting on a OneDrive account

..Why?

[FN-GM]

People that use OneDrive or Google drive isn't there an upload limit for the speed making it unrealistic? We tried once using cloudberry and Google drive but after a few GB Google drive kicks you onto a really slow upload due to the volume.

 

I have reached speeds of 400mbits

[mukz]

..Why?

 

I see the service as a document library, not as an image level backup pot.

 

Have you ever tested restoring from OneDrive if all your other alternatives failed? If it has worked then i will try this of course as it would be free. Also doesn’t OneDrive have a 10GiB file size limit?

 

At the moment my mind is set unless i see it work - which i haven’t.

Edited October 14, 2017 by mukz

[tj2419]

I have reached speeds of 400mbits

Is that using rclone and Google drive? Thanks

[Dave_O]

People that use OneDrive or Google drive isn't there an upload limit for the speed making it unrealistic? We tried once using cloudberry and Google drive but after a few GB Google drive kicks you onto a really slow upload due to the volume.

 

Looking at the logs the average is 150Gb in 2hours 30 mins at a rate of about 17.2Mb/s which is about 1Tb every 17 hours, this is about 3 and a half days in total for all data, split over the weekend and 2 evenings

[FN-GM]

Is that using rclone and Google drive? Thanks

 

Yep, worked well. However I created my own client ID

 

https://rclone.org/drive/

 

I am getting this at the moment, but the QOS on the line is limited to 150megabits per second.

Edited October 14, 2017 by FN-GM

[FN-GM]

Just increased the QOS limit now getting 175.

[Dave_O]

I see the service as a document library, not as an image level backup pot.

 

Have you ever tested restoring from OneDrive if all your other alternatives failed? If it has worked then i will try this of course as it would be free. Also doesn’t OneDrive have a 10GiB file size limit?

 

At the moment my mind is set unless i see it work - which i haven’t.

 

1. My apologies the cloud sync account is a Google account not OneDrive

2. Yes tested an app server Veeam backup by copying it back from the GoogleDrive account (took about 5 hours), imported it back into Veeam and restored the machine. Worked OK

 

With regard to setting ones mind. Experience tells me this is never a good idea. With that in mind, if you assess the probability of having to use your cloud backup solution to restore files or machines (assuming your two on premises solution contains some level of physical diversity) then I would guess this is a fraction of a percent, therefore the risk of failover to the cloud backup is equally negligible. Expenditure on such a solution should, then be commensurate. I think it's important that we consider both the context and risk when assessing the viability of a solution.

[FN-GM]

We use our Drive Backup solution as a "Just in case" we also backup to a DPM server hosted at another site.

[mukz]

1. My apologies the cloud sync account is a Google account not OneDrive

2. Yes tested an app server Veeam backup by copying it back from the GoogleDrive account (took about 5 hours), imported it back into Veeam and restored the machine. Worked OK

 

With regard to setting ones mind. Experience tells me this is never a good idea. With that in mind, if you assess the probability of having to use your cloud backup solution to restore files or machines (assuming your two on premises solution contains some level of physical diversity) then I would guess this is a fraction of a percent, therefore the risk of failover to the cloud backup is equally negligible. Expenditure on such a solution should, then be commensurate. I think it's important that we consider both the context and risk when assessing the viability of a solution.

 

I completely agree with you about the considerations. The cloud solution was to complement BackupExec by using the built in Azure Link. We didn’t want to have 2 separate systems to do backups.

 

Never the less i will still try the googledrive backup like you have done - i like testing and breaking things.

[NotSoFast]

We also use Google Drive as a "just in case" cloud backup. I don't know the details but I do know it is run every night and finishes just in time for school starting!

[FN-GM]

A problem with cloud backup is recovery. You will need a good internet connection to get your data back. We have 2 separate internet connections at separate sites and an agreement with a couple of other sites where we can download data. Not only that you will need something to download the data onto.

[Dave_O]

We use our Drive Backup solution as a "Just in case" we also backup to a DPM server hosted at another site.

 

Ours is similar 1. Backup to disk (on Veeam server separate location to production) 2. Backup same Veeam jobs as disk to QNAP (secondary location - still one site but different building). 3. DPM - of main services (hosted in 3rd location - still on site) 4. QNAP cloud sync (all encrypted of course)

 

The changes of being hit by fire/storm/flood (the school is on a hill so unlikely) that destroys all three buildings is to all intents and purposes zero. I do not believe, given the above, that we should be directing significant IT resources to such unlikely events when zero cost solutions will suffice. Yes, restore times will be longer but this is education.