Backup solutions

[Bengual]

Anyone with any insight into backup software? What does everyone use?

 

Many thanks,

 

Ben

[glennda]

Anyone with any insight into backup software? What does everyone use?

 

Many thanks,

 

Ben

 

What do you use for the Front end? Windows? linux? what virtualisation platform do you run if any?

 

 

EDIT: depending on Platforms I would either head towards Veeam or MS DPM if not virtulised on either Hyper-V or ESXI.

Edited August 7, 2012 by glennda

[sparkeh]

I use Acronis Backup and Restore: Acronis backup software and recovery services in UK. Backup software for data backup and disaster recovery in Windows and Linux - Acronis

We have the Advanced Server edition but could do with moving to virtual edition.

Its dead easy to setup and use and as long as it working and happy its brilliant, however, I have found that if it goes wrong it can go wrong in a big way and be a real headache to fix. Must admit that v11 is much better than v10 was at not throwing a benny and ran problem free for a while now.

[Bengual]

What do you use for the Front end? Windows? linux? what virtualisation platform do you run if any?

 

 

EDIT: depending on Platforms I would either head towards Veeam or MS DPM if not virtulised on either Hyper-V or ESXI.

 

Hi,

 

Windows and VMware.

[glennda]

Hi,

 

Windows and VMware.

 

Veeam then. Brilliant as you can boot from a backup essentially.

 

Also lots of free apps and is being expanded more and more (such as the Exchange tool on beta at the moment.).

[Bengual]

Does Veeam do physical machines as well?

[glennda]

Does Veeam do physical machines as well?

 

Nope - what physical machines have you got? Veeam backs up by taking Snapshots and backing up the original state (but only what has changed). then removing the snapshot.

 

Backup Exec's would do what you want and its vmware offering is similar but not as good as veeams.

 

EDIT: veeam won't do backup to tape either.

Edited August 7, 2012 by glennda

[Norphy]

We use Commvault Simpana, it has agents for HyperV and VMware and for VMware works in the same way as Veeam in that it'll take a snapshot of the disk and back the snapshot up. For physical servers, it has the traditional agents.

 

We have a dedicated backup server with a 12TB DAS, the servers get backed up directly to that and then the data gets transferred to tape (LTO5).

[Bengual]

Is that expensive?

[glennda]

Is that expensive?

 

Which one Veeam or CommVault? DPM from Microsoft is cheap under EES.

[Norphy]

Is that expensive?

 

If you're asking about Commvault, very!

 

The primary reason we're with it was because at the time it was either the only or at the least the best supported backup solution for SharePoint. That said, it is the best backup suite that I've worked with and I've used BackupExec (spit), Legato Networker and ArcServe.

Edited August 7, 2012 by Norphy

[Millgate]

What about off site back up? Just a thought. Let me know if you think about it and i'll get you prices etc

[glennda]

What about off site back up? Just a thought. Let me know if you think about it and i'll get you prices etc

 

Offsite backup is an option with Veeam and Cheaply. I know Databarracks now support Veeam backups direct to there servers rather then there own backups.

[6Foot2]

Server running backup software: Windows Storage Server 2003

 

Backup software [with relevant agents] Symantec Backup Exec 2010

 

Servers/stations backed up: XP [one station], Server 2008, Server 2003

[teejay]

The backup strategy and therefore the software you use really depends on what the expectations are in your Disaster Recovery plan and also your archive requirements. Different products have a different focus, for instance Veeam is great for fast restore of servers from a server failure, but is rubbish for long term archiving of files as it doesn't support tape. Offsite backup looks good, but there are issues of speed, data protection issues for confidential data or if they get hacked (it does happen) and also you'll have fun and games trying to do a full site recovery from it. Traditional backup software is generally great for archival backups, but a pita as a complete DR solution for quick restore of data, also don't forget you need a way to test your tape backups.

So, the way to go is to look at your disaster recovery and archival requirements, get an idea of expected disaster recovery times from SLT and build a solution around those requirements, don't just go and get a piece of backup software to tick the box that says 'we do backups' as that will bite you in the backside big style when the brown stuff hits the fan.

[User3204]

We've just had VMware Data recovery installed onto our vm cluster this summer, which once it's managed to go through all the data on the cluster should do us. We have two 8tb NAS boxes for it to backup onto.

 

It's a freebie as part of the VM ware license we have.

 

It does deduplication, which is good in terms of saving disk space, but is annoying as it takes ages to backup.

[Bengual]

If you're asking about Commvault, very!

 

The primary reason we're with it was because at the time it was either the only or at the least the best supported backup solution for SharePoint. That said, it is the best backup suite that I've worked with and I've used BackupExec (spit), Legato Networker and ArcServe.

 

Yes, I was enquiring about Commvault.

 

Thank you.