mrforgetful Posted January 10, 2007 Posted January 10, 2007 We are very short on backup space so I need to trim it down. This is for disaster recovery only, so if the school burns down or something. The data I'm wanting to backup is the Active Directory/Group Policies etc. so if the school burns down and I get a new server in I can restore this Domain Information. Is it necessary to back up the System State of all my Servers? Or do I only need one? Or do I need my DC and my Mail Server's System State? Thanks.
ChrisH Posted January 10, 2007 Posted January 10, 2007 Supposedly you could get away with backing up one DC but sods law states that there will be something wrong with that backup. If your running out of space (im guessing some sort of tape drive) try and get some external Hard Drives in for backing up certain stuff like user data etc.
bossman Posted January 10, 2007 Posted January 10, 2007 Why not buy a Buffalo NAS for around 1k, at 2Tb its a cheap solution to your backup problems.
bossman Posted January 10, 2007 Posted January 10, 2007 Well then backup your NAS or Server directly to a usb 2.0 portable harddrive then take off site (simple but effective) I am offering a simple solution to your problem.
apeo Posted January 10, 2007 Posted January 10, 2007 BTW if you dont have a portable HDD what you could make a usb portable HDD with eide drives if you buy a usb caddy.. not the quickest way to do things but can be a cheap and portable HDD.
mrforgetful Posted January 11, 2007 Author Posted January 11, 2007 Well then backup your NAS or Server directly to a usb 2.0 portable harddrive then take off site (simple but effective) I am offering a simple solution to your problem. This is what I was planning to do but I'm not sure if the data transfer rate will be fast enough? I was going to buy a 500Gb external drive for each of my main 5 servers, a 1Tb one for our storage server and another maybe 250Gb to backup the SIMS database. I would have 3 sets, two weekly's and a term and would set them running from Friday evening to they had all weekend to transfer the data. Does this sound feasable?
webman Posted January 11, 2007 Posted January 11, 2007 I'd have thought one USB2 disk for each server should suffice.
ChrisH Posted January 11, 2007 Posted January 11, 2007 USB2 is a hell of a lot faster than 1.1 remember I personally use external SATA caddies that connect through a back plate connector on the machine.
ChrisH Posted January 11, 2007 Posted January 11, 2007 Why do you have to take it off site? Ben Off site backup disaster recovery etc maybe?
plexer Posted January 11, 2007 Posted January 11, 2007 Dunno that's why I asked. I'd be very wary of just taking schools data offiste personally. Ben
ChrisH Posted January 11, 2007 Posted January 11, 2007 Dunno that's why I asked. I'd be very wary of just taking schools data offiste personally. Ben I have a vicious cocker spaniel and 2 cats protecting mine I see your point though. Maybe school should buy us all safes ?
mrforgetful Posted January 11, 2007 Author Posted January 11, 2007 plexer - Offsite incase of fire. Data is RAID'd then backed up to another server onsite and we use shadow copies for restoring mainly so data is all nice and safe onsite, but that's useless if I come to work to find it burnt to the ground, then it's a P45 lol. ChrisH and Webman - I was looking at some external USB2 drives and then got looking at eSATA. These are them: eSATA: http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?product_id=10370&category_id=114&manufacturer_id=15 USB2: http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?product_id=7491&category_id=114&manufacturer_id=0 I don't have an eSATA connection on my server's though, any idea how I can add them?
apeo Posted January 11, 2007 Posted January 11, 2007 I have a vicious cocker spaniel and 2 cats protecting mine I see your point though. Maybe school should buy us all safes ?
webman Posted January 11, 2007 Posted January 11, 2007 You'd need a PCI (Express?) eSATA Adapter, like this one. but that's useless if I come to work to find it burnt to the ground, then it's a P45 lol. Not if they can't access the Personnel database
broc Posted January 11, 2007 Posted January 11, 2007 plexer - Offsite incase of fire. Data is RAID'd then backed up to another server onsite and we use shadow copies for restoring mainly so data is all nice and safe onsite, but that's useless if I come to work to find it burnt to the ground, then it's a P45 lol. We ran a fibre to our sports hall (seperate building) which is approx 200m from main block & installed a DR server there in a cupboard. Works like a dream.
mrforgetful Posted January 11, 2007 Author Posted January 11, 2007 plexer - Offsite incase of fire. Data is RAID'd then backed up to another server onsite and we use shadow copies for restoring mainly so data is all nice and safe onsite, but that's useless if I come to work to find it burnt to the ground, then it's a P45 lol. We ran a fibre to our sports hall (seperate building) which is approx 200m from main block & installed a DR server there in a cupboard. Works like a dream. We have two seperate building but the join together using link corridors. Wonder if that would be acceptable to move the backup server over there? It's already fibred as we have PCs in both buildings but Servers only in one.
mrforgetful Posted January 11, 2007 Author Posted January 11, 2007 I'm guessing this means I have PCI Express? PCI slots Standard: – 2 x PCI-X (64 bit / 133 MHz, hot plug capable), – 3 x PCI-X (64 bit/ 100 MHz) Riser card (optional) on slot 5: – 3 x PCI-X (64 bit/ 100 MHz)
PeterW Posted January 11, 2007 Posted January 11, 2007 PCI-X is not the same as PCI Express (or PCI-E if you like) ! PCI-X is an extension of standard PCI allowing much faster data transfer speeds. See Here
mrforgetful Posted January 11, 2007 Author Posted January 11, 2007 Right. So I can't use that Controller Card then. Can I not buy a PCI-X controller card that will give me external SATA connectors? I'll look into it more after dinner.
Geoff Posted January 11, 2007 Posted January 11, 2007 http://uk.insight.com/apps/productpresentation/index.php?product_id=SNNTSATA00&cm_mmc=Froogle-_-OI-_-SNN-_-SNNTSATA00&src=FRO1 £177 quid. 4 eSATA ports.
mrforgetful Posted January 11, 2007 Author Posted January 11, 2007 Thankyou. I've also found this: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CC-022-AD which I can combine with this: http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=46785&criteria=sata&doy=11m1 and then use these: http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?product_id=10370&category_id=114&manufacturer_id=15 Would that work? Or are the connectors wrong? Should I just get a USB2 drive as it's going to have all weekend to transfer 500Gb which should be plenty of time? Thanks.
mrforgetful Posted January 11, 2007 Author Posted January 11, 2007 Bastard! Was just looking through this page and then read your post! http://www.cooldrives.com/saiandsaiiin.html So. I'm thinking I'll give up on eSATA and go with USB2 if I don't solve it by the end of today.
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