[thelist] backup plan

Ken Schaefer Ken at adOpenStatic.com
Tue Nov 30 16:33:12 CST 2004



: -----Original Message-----
: From: thelist-bounces at lists.evolt.org
[mailto:thelist-bounces at lists.evolt.org] On
: Behalf Of Richard Bennett
: Sent: Wednesday, 1 December 2004 6:36 AM
: To: thelist at lists.evolt.org
: Subject: Re: [thelist] backup plan
: 
: On Tuesday 30 November 2004 15:17, evolt at mccullough-net.com wrote:
: > Since
: > we are looking at > 750GB of storage, we are looking at significant cost,
: > both hardware and software.  We have looked at Windows NFS solution,
: > Computer Associates, and Veritas.  I'm trying to see if there is a
cheaper
: > Linux based alternative.  Like using RSYCN and some other tools to
: > accomplish the same thing.
: 
: That's what I did.
: I setup an RSync server on a dedicated linux box, with hot-plugable
harddisks
: in a RAID mirror.

<snip>

Things to be aware of:
a) OP is looking at 750GB of data *per backup*. Since most hard disks top out
at about 250GB each these days, you end up needing a lot of disks to handle
this size data set

b) What if you need a document from several versions ago (or from several
backups ago). That really bloats the dataset. Suppose you need a month's
worth of backups. At 750GB each, that's approximately 22.5 TB of data. If you
want to provision that space using disks, you're looking at lots of money -
for raw disk space, for boxes to house the disks, for network infrastructure
to connect them all up etc.

With that size data set, at this stage, for most companies, the only option
is tape. Choose some version of DLT, and get an autoloader is my suggestion.
Speak to a Veritas (of similar) reseller that can do some integration work
for you, and so ensure that your backup plan is solid.

Also, if you have Windows servers, I'm not sure whether RSync will backup
"system state" - generally to do that you need to call the APIs that Windows
exposes. Products like NTBackup or Veritas BackupExec use those APIs to
backup system state (eg certificate store, COM+ catalogue, AD databases, SAM,
that otherwise can not be backed up reliably)

Veritas has been rock solid for me at the various places I've worked at.
Price is definitely not cheap, but the product actually works if you have it
setup correctly. Unlike a certain product that is sold by CA.

Cheers
Ken


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