New Backup required

[ginger9991]

Hi Guys,

Im looking at a new backup strategy as my tape drive has just broke. I believe i should be looking towards NAS now! I have spoke to a few people (sales people) and looked at a few models such as the SNAP 410 and the Buffalo. Can anyone recommend one? or information that i might find usful. I supposed i would have to also get some back up software and there will be licences for this? Im also on abit of a budget so i need to get what i can! im backing up about 300GB of data.

 

Thanks guys.

[gshaw]

The only thing I worry about backing up to disk is how to get the data stored off-site if you only have the one campus... had a quote recently from Misco for a Netgear ReadyNAS with 2 x 500GB disks for free

[Hightower]

300GB daily? Or total? How long do you need to keep backup data for?

[jamin100]

Build a nas yourself. Get an old (ish) pc throw in 2 x 500GB sata hard drives then use freenas to setup a raid1 mirror.

 

Lock it in a cupboard or coms cab at the other end of the school. make some simple robocopy scripts to sync the data between drives.

[tmcd35]

The only thing I worry about backing up to disk is how to get the data stored off-site if you only have the one campus... had a quote recently from Misco for a Netgear ReadyNAS with 2 x 500GB disks for free

 

This is what I use for offsite backups

 

Buffalo TeraStation Pro II 4TB NAS - Misco.co.uk

[Slewis]

We also use Buffalo's NAS, one for each server.

 

Tried Maxtor's offering initially, but they failed far too often.

 

Using Symantec's Backup Exec 11D to perform the actual backup.

 

We perform daily incremental backups and weekly full backups.

 

Offsite backups are then transferred from the Buffalo to a USB Maxtor drive for portability.

Edited December 3, 2009 by Slewis

[ginger9991]

jamin100 - I tried downloading FreeNAS but when i try to unzip it i get error: a internal error in ISO image!!!!!

 

300gb is combined!

[richardp]

Hi, I know I bang on about them in other threads but I cannot recommend the drobo boxes highly enough. Not sure of your budget so they may be out of your price range but the DroboPro is around £850 for the chassis without disks. Then just add as many sata harddrives as you want / can afford. You get usb / firewire and iSCSI (through the builtin network port) connections so you can plug it straight into your server. Very easy to use, when its running out of space it tells you, you either put another drive in a spare slot or replace your smallest drive, all without stopping the device or stopping people accessing the data. The DroboPro is also certified to work with VMWARE for virtual servers etc...

 

Something to think about however if you take backups off site, for example you take them home, some people have stopped doing it because they cannot guarantee the security of the data. Also at the very least the backup should be encrypted no matter where it ends up off site. Your best bet is probably to have a good media safe on site, some now come with a usb cable on the outside you can hookup to a harddrive inside to transfer data without even opening the safe.

 

 

richard

[broc]

Build a nas yourself. Get an old (ish) pc throw in 2 x 500GB sata hard drives then use freenas to setup a raid1 mirror.

 

Lock it in a cupboard or coms cab at the other end of the school. make some simple robocopy scripts to sync the data between drives.

 

You can pick up cheap HP ML110 servers for £150 too, with space for 4 internal HDD & basic RAID 1 support. We bought a couple last year for £100 each, stuffed them with big SATA HDD & stashed them in a cupboard in our sports hall, connected via fibre to the main network.