Backing Up A Server

GregAl · Joined: Aug 13, 2003 Posts: 1

Good day everyone,
We currently backup our server with a DDS tape drive (24 GB) and I was wondering if there is another way to backup our server that would be faster and easier to access? I thought about DVD-RW drives but since the capacity is around 4.8 GB (?) per disc that would mean we would have to span the backup across several discs which is not something we want to do since we currently have the backup scheduled nightly when no one is in the office so spanning would mean someone would need to be there to change discs. The idea sounds good (because the drive is cheaper than a tape drive as well as the media) but since the disc is limited in capacity it poses a problem. Does anyone have any suggestions as to another way to backup? I'd prefer to find something better than tape backup because of the catalog rebuild time and seek time if we needed to recover files. If the backup were on media such as dvd then anyone with a dvd drive should be able to get any files without having to go to the server to restore from a tape. We've got a 36 GB drive in RAID array running on a Win 2K server.
Thanks for your help!
Greg

User: inactive Posts:

Since no gnomie wants to tackle this I guess I will. I would stick with the method you are currently using. It can be done unattended and you can store backups off site. There is an old saying that goes "If it ain't broke don't fix it".

goretsky · Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2003 3:53 am Post subject:

Hello,

One of the problems with finding a replacement for tape is that it works quite well for what it does. The obvious solution would be speed up the existing backup system by installing a tape library with multiple tape drives. That would increase the speed of all tape operations by striping them across several tapes, just like a hard disk drive RAID array. The disadvantages, besides price, is such devices are large, might have special power requirements (e.g., 220V 3-phase) and can be expensive to maintain--get the manufacturer's support contract; it's cheaper than replacing the robotic armature because something ground itself to death.

Another possibility is to switch to another tape medium, such as AIT. AIT tapes have a RAM chip embedded in them which greatly speeds up indexing time by storing some of the catalogue information with the tape.

Another possibility would be going with optical discs of some sort. DVD-RAM would probably be a better medium for backups than DVD±R(W).

Plasmon is discussing a new optical backup technology called UDO based on Blu-Ray. I'm not sure if it's shipping yet, though.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

RIjay · Joined: Dec 09, 2002 Posts: 388

Have you considered a SAN or NAS? What you could do is backup to one of these devices and then run backup the device to tape. It then provides you with a redundant backup, allowing for both on and off site storage. It all really matters on how much do you want to spend. Dell has a NAS for under $2000 with 160GB. Add on the software costs and possibly an external tape drive with SCSI and you should be under $4000.

BudDurland · Joined: Dec 05, 2002 Posts: 475

It sounds like the problem to solve is that it takes too long to retrieve file from the backup tape.

If that's so, there'a couple options:

I would investigate network attached storage (NAS) -- something similar to a Snap Server appliance. Many of these can be had with 80GB or more of storage for $1000 or less. Backup (copy changed) files from the main server to NAS. Then backup the NAS to tape for off-site storage and disaster recovery.

The el-cheapo way out would be to add one the new humongous (>100GB) EIDE drives to the server, then use the same strategy -- copy to the new drive, back that one up.

HTH