Backup Solution??

[NissanGurl]

I work in an education setting with a variety of OS's: Windows, Novell, Linux. We have databases (Oracle, SQL, etc) on various servers and the servers do various functions. I don't know the cost of the software, as I was only recently put in charge of backups, but we use Legato Networker. It is running on a dedicated server with a tape storage system attatched. It works fairly well as I recently learned having to restore our entire Exchange Mail Data due to corruption from a hardware crash (2 days after I was put in charge the backup system). Legato of course offers support, but I'm not sure of the cost of that either. I know that with the level of support we have, I can open unlimited support calls with them if I have issues and they are pretty good on communicating with you.

 

[pro956]

Thanks everyone for the help!
My situation has been fully taken care of and I really do appreciate all of the advice given.

 

[PlatinumGold]

Originally posted by: Cal166

Originally posted by: pro956
Thanks for the info.

In terms of this not being in the software forum:

I'm also interested in hardware--
I'm not sure if I should have a server dedicated to backup of the other servers.
I'm not sure if I should look into tape backups.

etc etc

Yes, It is wise to have a dedicated backup server. EDIT: as in a server that backs up onto tapes, not backup into a NAS or Local HDs

The whole point of a backup system is to put it in Tapes....

the whole point of a backup system is to put it on nonvolatile removable media. tape is good because it's relatively inexpensive and can hold a lot.

it really depends on the size of the backup.

the key is, REMOVABLE, you want to be able to always keep backup media OFF SITE.

i like rev drives myself for the smaller backups, but sounds like for this scenario, the rev drive capacity (35 gb/ 90 gb compressed) will be insufficient.

 

[jondercik]

Backup to an external drive device. Be it a SCSI array or a SAN/NAS. This will provide the easiest method of rotating the backups and will do it the fastest.

 

[NeoSolo]

Dentist that I knew wanted some backup for his system.
He stores all his x-ray image digitally, so the backup tend to get large. Currently at 100G in 2 years. Before he was not compressing the image, so they were hitting near 300G mark in 1 year.

After doing some researching, this seems like good backup for him.

Dell PowerVault 110T LTO-2-L + scsi + tapes at around $2500
Backup exec, but i think window backup seems to work fine also.
I was playing with Backup Exec, but it was getting little confusing with media labels and other stuffs. For now windows backup seems to work fine.

He does backup his stuffs in the internal harddrive, and also to the tape backup.

For tapes;
1 for each days of week.
1 every week.
1 monthly.

Store weekly and monthly in remote location.

Your is probably little more complicated with more servers. So probabaly should look into those automated backup solution?
I am not expert at backup, so please any other input will be great.