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Thread: Backup Solutions

  1. #1
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    Backup Solutions

    Hi,
    In my company we are searching for a complete backup solution, and it's an area where I don´t have much know-how (both hardware and software solutions). Anyhow, I'm here to ask for your help in pointing me the right direction.

    Our network consists of 4 sites and we need a solution to backup mostly user files, (some services have cad files wich are very large) although the solution now it's only to backup files, it must be kept in mind to backup exchange server too.

    I'll appreciate your help, even this is not a issue of security (in the terms of intrusion), it's a very important part of a recovery plan, and I really don't have any know-how in this field, so any help would be really apreciated.

    thanks

  2. #2
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    Nyx,

    Fortunatly there are many resources for this topic out there. A effective and reliable backup policy can be one of the most important things you can do for your company. Although, it is not something you want to roll out prematurely.

    I am currently putting together a backup delpoyment plan for my company, and there is alot of research that goes into it:

    Identifying what needs to be backed up, and how often. (big part)
    Determining the types of backups (full, differential, incramental, tower of hanoi, and so on).
    What software to use(we have decided to go with Veritas Backup Exec., due to it being widely supported).
    Who is responsible for starting backups.
    Who is responsible for taking copies and storing them off-site.
    Setting upa schedule to do a "test-restore" to verify the reliabbility of the backup.

    Also when looking at the plan, make sure you and your bosses agree on what is important enough to backup. (there is nothing worse than having a server crash and telling your boss "I didnt know you wanted me to back that up")

    As for the cad and exchange files, you can olso conside implamenting some form of RAID. Depending on the $$$ available. For my low end people who do not want to do a "backup" or are forgetfull, I will sometimes advise the create a "mirrored" volume, that way if a disk crashes you still have a exact copy of the data.

    I may have missed some important information here, but this should get you off to a good start. I dont think I solved any problems, but then again I dont know enough about the situation. Hope this helps, let me know if I can be of any assistance.

    Thanks!!!
    \"Common Sense, isn\'t that common\"
    \"It is a lot easier to raise a child then it is to repair an adult\"
    -Kruptos

  3. #3
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    We're not a huge company, but have a lot of financial dat thats backed up daily. Heres how I set it up.

    First off, we have two windows Server 2003 servers.

    We have tape backup drives in each server.

    What I did was configure the backup utility thats in windows server 2003 to back up specific informatin that we need at 12:15 A.M every day.

    Its a cheap backup solution withough having to spend lots of money on large servers that hold all backups.

    Now of course, it does depend on how much data you are backing up. But if its not a whole lot of data I recommend a tape backup solution. If it is quite a bit of data, then go with something similiar to a SAN (storage area network)
    =

  4. #4
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    thanks for your replies. I will investigate a bit more before proposing a solution, anyhow thanks a lot for your replys.

  5. #5
    AO Guinness Monster MURACU's Avatar
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    One other thing to consider is try not to keep all your backups in the same geographical location. The biggest failing of many backup plans is the administrator thinks up to the moment that the data is backed up and no futher. If you have four sites use the four sites to store the data. Also as silly as this sounds dont forget to inform your users what the limitations are on the backup system. Anyway good luck with the project.
    \"America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between.\"
    \"The reason we are so pleased to find other people\'s secrets is that it distracts public attention from our own.\"
    Oscar Wilde(1854-1900)

  6. #6
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    Offsite backups are a good idea too.
    a good plan is to have two sets of tapes, and rotate them out every backup cycle.
    I have a simple web server myself, and a email server. I put three additional drives in it. I split the three in half. one half of one is a mirror of the OS drive. then 1/2 of the three drives are a software raid 5. that stores all the data for the web sites and FTP, etc. Then the remaining 2 1/2's are mirrored for redundant storage. Then I have back up scripts that copy the important stuff to each of the drives as well as copy over the network to another drive, every night at 3 am. I dont have a tape drive as my personal operation doesnt quite warrant it. Im happy with 4 way data redundancy and a mirror of the OS -- that can always be reinstalled worst case scenario. There are many options out there. It all depends on your operations.
    but the bottom lines are: Dont forget to rotate, use the best type of backup method, (complete, incremental, differential) as they will affect recovery steps, and KEEP OFFSITE COPIES. Your backups wont do much good if they melt in a fire...
    Remember -
    The ark was built by amatures...
    The Titanic was built by professionals.

  7. #7
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    the software that kruptos mantioned sounds very familiar ,you must check it out,also he mantioned RAID which if implimented properly it is almost imposible to cause a disater,
    you may have to do a Disaster Recovery/Contingency plan ,i have done one at school few years ago it was for a school with 5000 sudents,it was an assignment i wouldnt be able to do that now

    you may have to agree with someone to write Disaster Recovery/Contingency plan for your company, you need to give more info on the setup , what are you running and how

  8. #8
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    I did not read the entire thread, just your post really. I would use tape's, or portable HDD's you plug in, back up, and then erase in like 5 months. Tapes are the better option though because of their cost to storage ratio.

    -Cheers-

  9. #9
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    We use netbackup professional for backing up client computers, we keep 5 versions of each computer to cover a week's time.
    Then we use Backup Exec to backup all the servers and the data from the netbackup professional to tape.
    We do full backups every night
    We have an LTO drive by OVerland that will backup around 35 gigs in an hour's time to tape..

  10. #10
    Find you a company that does CD-R backing up, we do and reliable.

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