Building a backup/file server, and revamping our network for my job, help.

[SharkyTM]

My workplace needs a server for backup and some limited file storage. We're a small company, with 7 PC's and 3 networked printers. Right now, everyone backs up to an external HDD on their desks, but its a clumsy, unmanaged, unreliable system, imposed by my predecessor. Our network is a mishmash of hubs, switches, and cat5 cabling.

I'm proposing that we rip out all the old wiring, replace it with Cat6 (all the wiring is external, so thats not a big deal), replace our existing switches/hubs with a single 8-port Gigabit switch, and a single 4-port 10/100 switch. The printers get hooked to the 10/100 switch, and all clients get hooked to the gigabit switch. That and the 10/100 switch will feed into our existing wireless router, and that to our cable modem. Its a simple system, keeping the gigabit switch for the client computers that need to talk to one another very quickly (and backup over the network), and leaving the printers on the 10/100.

Our backups will be handled by a server I'm going to build, running XP Pro, and Acronis TrueImage Workstation. I'm figuring that a low-end C2D will handle it all no problem, with around 2GB of RAM. For storage, I want a motherboard-level RAID for the OS, and a hardware RAID (Either RAID1 or RAID6) with 4x750GB SATA2 drives for an effective array size of 1.5TB. That should be ok, as each client's full backup will run about 40GB, with daily differentials running around 2GB each. I plan to run a full every Saturday, with differentials running each morning at staggered times from midnight to 5AM (to reduce network overload). I'd like to keep a months worth of backups for each machine.
Weekly/client: 40GB+6x2GB=52GB/week/client*4*7=1.456TB Of course, I know that 2 of the clients have less than 30GB for their full backups, and most won't reach 2GB/differential. Those are worst case scenarios, and should allow for at least 500GB of free space on the array. I'll also have a backup for the server's OS drive, but that'll be very small (2GB or less).

So, I have a number of questions, and I'm having trouble finding answers to them.

1: Is there a difference between consumer-level gigabit switches? I'm not talking about a Cisco managed switch, I'm talking about Linksys SD2008, a 3com 3CGSU08, or something like that. I don't think there's a need for anything more, but if there is, please convince me, or link me to an article that explains it. If you have a favorite model, please tell me what it is, and why you like it.
2: Do you see a problem with my network layout, with our wireless router running supreme, connected to a 10/100 switch for the printers/laptops, and the gigabit that hooks all the clients and the server together?
3: Whats a good choice for the RAID card? I've got a bunch of experience with HighPoint cards, both external and motherboard-based, and ditto with Promise. I've been looking at the Tekrams and Adaptecs in the 200-400$ range. Battery backup for the card would be nice, but not necessary. We'll be running a pretty hefty UPS to make sure this thing doesn't go down unexpectedly.
4: What motherboard/processor/RAM combo should I go with? I need the mobo to play nice with the RAID card, and we don't need a $$$$ server motherboard that fits in a 1U case, or has dual processors. ECC RAM should not be a requirement.
5: Case suggestions other than an Antec P182? This won't be rack-mounted, so no need for a special case.
6: What about buying a used PowerEdge from eBay with an SAS card in it. Can I use SATA drive on an SAS card, and still use its RAID features?

Thanks very much for the suggestions. I'll check this thread as regularly as I can, I'm going offshore for next week.

 

[RebateMonger]

No matter what server you choose, I recommend that you keep separate, offsite backups of critical data. If you have a fire, flood, theft, severe virus attack, etc., you can lose everything, even with a server.

Standard small business practice is to put all critical files on a server and then back up the server to removable media, keeping at least one recent set of backups offsite. It's uncommon to find small businesses that have more than a few hundred gigabytes of critical data (I have one 25-person legal firm with about 400GB of data, with lots of graphics and video presentations). For that, you can use 500GB or 1TB USB or SATA drives in portable housings.

 

[SharkyTM]

Offsite would be nice, but its not going to happen. I think we've decided that an NAS device would be the best idea. If we're leaving for an extended time, we'll take it with us. This is a home office, amazingly, so there are people here 24/7.

Any thoughts on a good 4 bay NAS that supports RAID1? The Netgear ReadyNAS looks nice, but there have been a lot of problems recently with quality, and its very expensive, even unpopulated. Thecus makes a nice unit, but the reviews are pretty limited, and its not cheap.

 

[Madwand1]

SmallNetBuilder has some info on a number of consumer NAS boxes.

They've also recently done a consumer gigabit switch shoot-out of sorts, and reviewed the Linksys SLM2008 recently.

I'd probably build my own and perhaps use XP-64 for the OS at the low end. I'd consider a switch with a greater number of ports for expansion (which unfortunately gets more expensive), but then you might also start running into connection limits on a Windows OS. In this view, a *nix build (as you'd get on a consumer NAS box) if you're up to it might be better.

If you have a decent file server, odds are that original data will end up there, so you might need something else to back that up. External drives would probably be the lowest $/GB at the low end.

 

[stlcardinals]

Just curious, are your end users using alot of different apps?

I think it would be overkill to be doing whole backups of every single workstation.

I would go with a scenario of making a network share, call it users. Make each user a folder under there and map it on their systems. Teach them to save everything important to that drive. Or better yet, retarget their My Documents folder to the mapped network drive.

Make sure you get a tape drive and back up the share every night. Duplicate it to an external hard drive if you want.

 

[skyking]

Automated offsite backup is not that big a deal if you can use a linux fileserver.
Set up a second machine at another location and and use dirvish to automatically back up files, incrementally.
The traffic is encrypted using SSH.