Fire/flood-proof backup storage for a small business

[Polishwonder74]

Howdy, fellas!

I was wondering if anyone has any advice for me. I am planning out a small storage/backup system for the small business that I work for, and thought the good people here at this forum may have been down this road before.

My company designs small medical devices, and we do all of our own marketing stuff, so we have not only small files to keep track of (word documents, and other little MS Office stuff), medium-sized files (circuit board layouts, Solidworks models, etc) and a few of the extra-large variety (13 Gb video files from video tapes). There are usually 5 - 7 PCs running most of the time, and about 4 employees accessing and sharing files on a boring, old Windows network (mostly Windows XP with a couple of Vista machines from time to time just to give me a headache).

Right now, I have a PC with a big 500 Gb drive that I've been using as a place for everyone to back their stuff up on in case of a virus infestation, coffee spill, epic hardware fail, etc. But the obvious Achilles heel is that the backup machine itself is susceptible, too.

My instinct is to build us a file-server-type machine here at the office with a RAID array and a tape backup in it to spit data out to be taken off-site. That way, everyone can keep dumping their backups onto the backup machine like normal, and if one drive fails, we won't lose anything. If anyone has a better idea, let me know. I'm not just looking for hardware, I'm also looking for a method to keep all of our data safe from disaster. Security is not a huge issue, nobody would want to deal with this crap anyway, and we don't have much as far as competing companies.

Another thing that I wanted to check on was if you guys think that it is worth it to upgrade to a gigabit LAN. It wouldn't make much sense to open that can of worms unless the sustained transfer rate of a hard drive is more than an old-fashioned 10/100 can handle.

Cost is my biggest issue. I was hoping to get it all done for around $1,000 (give or take). It's possible that Dell, or another company makes a system that would do me some good, so I'm open to those possibilities, too. For heavyweight hardware like this, I'm usually able to build a system for a lot cheaper than Dell can.

What do you think? Any ideas?

Thanks for humoring me!

:beer:

 

[CurseTheSky]

The best way to backup important data is to have it in multiple places at the same time. Consider the following:

* To keep productivity up, you'll want a local repository for your data. You could keep the 500 GB hard drive you're working with now as is, or migrate it over to a small, cheap file server (build one with a discrete RAID controller for RAID 1, Gigabit LAN, etc. for $500ish).

* To protect against viruses, you'll want a backup that isn't constantly connected to a network. Consider buying a reliable 1TB or bigger 3.5" HDD and an external enclosure with eSATA, and use software to transfer the backups from your file server when you connect it. Microsoft SyncToy might work, or something like Acronis True Image, though I'm not very familiar with either one.

* To protect against fire and floods, you'll want a backup at a separate location from your main office. Maybe you can set up a second, cheap file server in your home, and use a VPN to send the backup data every so often? If a VPN isn't an option, you could manually transport and copy the data once a week / once a month (depending how often the files are updated, and how secure you want to be). Additionally, if it's good enough, you could always grab the external HDD (above) and run out of the office, though it doesn't help if you're away or especially when the priority is to get people out first.


That gives you three copies of the "same" information at any given time. Throw in a tape backup and you should be golden. The people over at Memory and Storage might be able to give you an even better suggestion.

 

[RebateMonger]

Here's a solution that is very easy to implement. It also may be among the cheapest, since it's super-easy to do. Total cost will be around $1000 and the whole thing can be implemented in one day.

1) Buy or build a Windows Home Server with enough hard drive space for redundant storage of your files. You might as well take advantage of the daily fully automated backups/restores for all your desktops and laptops, too.

2) Buy at leat three 1 TB or larger external hard drives for the offsite backups.

3) Set up WHS to make daily backups of all the PCs and to have folder redudancy for the shared data folders, which is where you put your shared data.

4) Set up automated backups of the WHS shares to the external drive(s). Swap the external drives as appropriate and take the latest backup offsite. This way, you'll always have at least one offsite backup, one attached to the WHS server for the automated shared data backups, and one drive that's either offsite or is being transported between the office and the offsite location.

There are also potential online solutions, either using service companies or using a VPN connection to an employee's home. But the viability of online backups will depend on how much data you have and how quickly the data is changing.

Regarding Gigabit networks:
For most small offices, the users will never notice the difference. But if they are moving or copying 13 GB files back and forth across the network frequently, then yes, they'll notice.

 

[ChaiBabbaChai]

All I can say is regarding one aspect of building a file server with RAID, after researching and talking to some people, Hitachi 7K1000.B / E7K1000 & WD Black 1TB hard drives are the way to go. Seagate is ONLY good at sequential reads. Both of my Seagates have alot of recovered errors according to SMART data. WD Blacks are better all around (especially multi-threaded reads), but they run hot. There haven't been that many other issues with Hitachis or WD Blacks either.

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: RebateMonger
There are also potential online solutions, either using service companies

MozyPro

 

[Paperdoc]

RAID5 is great, but you REALLY do need daily backups, both on- and off-site. And the backups should be preserved for some time, like about 2 weeks or more, before being replaced. That is to guard against viruses, etc. that are discovered a week or more after they start to work. I saw once a server disaster that involved failure of TWO drives in a RAID5 array, so even that could not restore itself - it depended on the good backup program they had going. And don't store the backups in a basement - a local firm had their entire server system in a basement that got flooded earlier this year.

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Originally posted by: ChaiBabbaChai
All I can say is regarding one aspect of building a file server with RAID, after researching and talking to some people, Hitachi 7K1000.B / E7K1000 & WD Black 1TB hard drives are the way to go. Seagate is ONLY good at sequential reads. Both of my Seagates have alot of recovered errors according to SMART data. WD Blacks are better all around (especially multi-threaded reads), but they run hot. There haven't been that many other issues with Hitachis or WD Blacks either.

I much prefer the Western Digital RE2 or RE3 drives for RAID configurations. Anything else, I love the WD Black drives.

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: Fullmetal Chocobo
I much prefer the Western Digital RE2 or RE3 drives for RAID configurations. Anything else, I love the WD Black drives.

Between the RE3's and WD Black's... Which hold up better in fire or flood?

Originally posted by: Polishwonder74
Fire/flood-proof backup storage for a small business

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Originally posted by: Blain

Originally posted by: Fullmetal Chocobo
I much prefer the Western Digital RE2 or RE3 drives for RAID configurations. Anything else, I love the WD Black drives.

Between the RE3's and WD Black's... Which hold up better in fire or flood?

Originally posted by: Polishwonder74
Fire/flood-proof backup storage for a small business

The one you take with you, or the RAID set you leave off-site.

 

[Polishwonder74]

Awesome suggestions, guys! It's really helping me get up to speed as far as current best practices for keeping data safe. Up until a couple years ago, we weren't generating much data, and weekly backups could be done on a couple of DVDs.

I'd like to automate the process as much as possible, so as to not drive my coworkers nuts by making them do extra stuff. We're all completely swamped here, and don't need MORE stress. Also, some people here (read: me) have a ton of data to keep safe (like 150 Gb or so), but like most people, I don't change a ton of files on a daily basis, unless we've shot some new video for me to edit. I am very interested in using a software solution to sync data, as opposed to cramming it all en masse through my poor, overworked router on a weekly basis. I looked into the Windows Home Server, and it looks really great (I get the impression that you can have it save a daily image of your hard drive, making disaster recovery easy as pie), but again, I don't know for sure if that's correct, and also there's the issue of trying to shove hundreds of gigabytes through my ethernet all of the time.

What do you guys think of Microsoft's SynchToy? I just downloaded it and gave it a whirl, and it seems to be pretty snazzy. I was also looking into Allway Synch, SyncBack, and whatever else I could dig up. Does anyone have experience with a software package that really did a great job and made your life easier?

I really like the idea of using an external eSATA drive to get things off-site. It would sure beat the pants off of a tape backup in terms of speed AND cost. Those tape drives are insanely expensive.

So, my current best idea would be to put together a RAID file server with an eSATA plug on it, using SynchToy on everyone's computer to do a daily backup every night, and stagger the scheduling so that we don't have 2 computers syncing at the same time.

Has anyone here tried out Windows Home Server? I see it at Newegg for about $100, sounds like a pretty good value. It's cool that you can just keep piling on storage drives, and it'll keep expanding, but it doesn't make a ton of sense to have that kind of massive storage potential when I would seem to be limited by how much I can send off-site on a eSATA drive at a time.

Thanks again for all of your suggestions, fellas. You guys RULE!!

:beer:

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: Polishwonder74
Has anyone here tried out Windows Home Server? I see it at Newegg for about $100, sounds like a pretty good value. It's cool that you can just keep piling on storage drives, and it'll keep expanding, but it doesn't make a ton of sense to have that kind of massive storage potential when I would seem to be limited by how much I can send off-site on a eSATA drive at a time.

I have six WHS servers at client sites, plus a couple of my own and a couple more at friends and family. They are near-zero maintenance and the automated backups and restores are awesome.

Yeah, once you get more than 2 TB of data (which is what will fit on the largest of today's hard drives), then offsite backups become more complicated. You can go to tapes (which are going to be really pricey at those storage sizes), or you can use multiple drives for the backups.

Be cautious when implementing any kind of backup system that isn't self-monitoring. It's common to find out, too late, that the backups quit working a month ago. One of the nice things about WHS is that if there's a problem with any of the PCs, it'll give you a very obvious warning until the problem is fixed. A good backups system should be automatic and should give feedback on the results. Even if it does, though, periodically test the results.

 

[ChaiBabbaChai]

Originally posted by: Fullmetal Chocobo

Originally posted by: ChaiBabbaChai
All I can say is regarding one aspect of building a file server with RAID, after researching and talking to some people, Hitachi 7K1000.B / E7K1000 & WD Black 1TB hard drives are the way to go. Seagate is ONLY good at sequential reads. Both of my Seagates have alot of recovered errors according to SMART data. WD Blacks are better all around (especially multi-threaded reads), but they run hot. There haven't been that many other issues with Hitachis or WD Blacks either.

I much prefer the Western Digital RE2 or RE3 drives for RAID configurations. Anything else, I love the WD Black drives.

Good call, I forgot about the RE3 in my self-centeredness (I'm not building a RAID server). heh

 

[ChaiBabbaChai]

Originally posted by: Polishwonder74
What do you guys think of Microsoft's SynchToy?
:beer:

I use SyncToy 2 often at home and it works great. I also use DriveImage XML to make images of HDD's. There is a DriveImage XML plugin for BartPE boot CD, so the combo is just awesome.

I wasn't going to suggest this, but SentrySafe.com sells a fire/water-proof HDD with USB. I donno about any of those cheap safes though... especially Sentry. Their "media" safes aren't rated under 150 F at least according to the manual and I think the HDD is under 500Gb.

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Originally posted by: RebateMonger

Originally posted by: Polishwonder74
Has anyone here tried out Windows Home Server? I see it at Newegg for about $100, sounds like a pretty good value. It's cool that you can just keep piling on storage drives, and it'll keep expanding, but it doesn't make a ton of sense to have that kind of massive storage potential when I would seem to be limited by how much I can send off-site on a eSATA drive at a time.

I have six WHS servers at client sites, plus a couple of my own and a couple more at friends and family. They are near-zero maintenance and the automated backups and restores are awesome.

I use a combination of SyncToy, Cobian Backup, CruzerSync (U3 software on thumbdrive), and Windows Home Server at home. All backups are done from machines to the WHS, and the remaining software is for moving specific or key information to other places: thumbdrive, external backup, TrueCrypt volumes, etc.

I absolutely love Windows Home Server, and would highly recommend it to anyone. It is also serving as my file server and media server, which the former would be great for a small business as well.

 

[Polishwonder74]

I've got another hardware-like question:

So say you've got yourself a RAID array, you are protected from losing data due to a hard drive failure. If I do a 3-drive RAID 5 array, I should be ok unless I lose 2 drives at once. I actually had an Antec Smartpower 2.0 PSU (read: piece of CRAPOLA) cook a hard drive about 6 months ago (Smoke, sparks. . . It was spectacular. And tragic.) What's to stop that sort of thing from ending 2 drives at once, and can I protect my system from that?

I know that PSUs have difficulty surviving brownouts and overvoltages, is is possible to help my new bomb-proof data warehouse computer with one of those cool battery backup units? In the event of a under or overvoltage, would one of those lessen the impact on the poor power supply that is working its tail off to run all of those drives?

 

[RebateMonger]

A surge protector should help keep drives from being destroyed by surges. Other than that, the most common cause of data corruption that I've encountered is when there's a power outage. I've had my personal RAID 1 Exchange Server's database corrupted when the UPS failed and simply cut off the power, and I've seen a 1 TB RAID 5 iSCSI array get the parity track corrupted, costing about 1 GB of data loss.

 

[Idontcare]

Originally posted by: Polishwonder74
What do you think? Any ideas?

Among the many helpful feedbacks you will get here in the GH sub-forum, I recommend you also post your query in the dedicated Memory and Storage sub-forum as you will find a lot of folks over there have insights for you but they don't travel over here to the GH sub-forum all that often.

So long as you reference this GH thread in your cross-post OP in the M&S sub-forum so everyone knows you are just trying to get as much help as possible; I don't see any reason for anyone getting too pissy about it. Good luck.

 

[Knavish]

Originally posted by: Polishwonder74
I've got another hardware-like question:

So say you've got yourself a RAID array, you are protected from losing data due to a hard drive failure. If I do a 3-drive RAID 5 array, I should be ok unless I lose 2 drives at once. I actually had an Antec Smartpower 2.0 PSU (read: piece of CRAPOLA) cook a hard drive about 6 months ago (Smoke, sparks. . . It was spectacular. And tragic.) What's to stop that sort of thing from ending 2 drives at once, and can I protect my system from that?

This is a very common way for RAID5's to fail. For example, if you have a bad PSU it can damage all your drives simultaneously -- two can fail at once. Or, it may outright kill one drive and weaken the rest. When you replace the dead drive, the stress of the RAID rebuild procedure may kill the next weak old drive. I've seen *both* of these happen where I use to work.

RAID is ABSOLUTELY NOT A SUBSTUTE FOR BACKUP! It does not guarantee data saftey. RAID purely exists to maintain machine uptime in the case of an HD failure.

 

[Paperdoc]

For protection against near-simultaneous failure of two drives in a RAID5 array, you can consider RAID6. It is like RAID5, but it adds a second parity block so that the array still can function and self-regenerate after two drive failures. Alternatively there are Nested RAID Arrays (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nested_RAID_levels ) that get much more complex and expensive. But simpler than those is to use RAID5 and a very good backup system from which you can rebuild the data even if it fails because of 2 drive failures. As I said earlier, I've seen that done. It was not easy on the sys people, but it worked well.

Power system malfunction protection covers much more than hard drive data - it can extend to most of the critical system. For this you need three elements: a surge (overvoltage) suppressor, an Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS), and an automatic monitoring system. A decent UPS will include some Surge Suppression at its input to protect itself as well as its load. A really good UPS should also provide software communication and alarm / action tools to manage it in co-operation with the computer it protects. The key is to recognize that the UPS, deprived of input power, can keep its load running for only a limited time period. Use that to organize a clean orderly shut-down.

When main power fails a UPS should take over instantly with no significant upsets to its load. It then should be able to send out an alarm signal to show that it is operating and its main supply has failed. Good modern systems include a simple monitoring and signaling system in the UPS with communication ability in the form of USB or Serial port connections to a PC, plus software to run on the PC in the background to communicate with the UPS. Depending on the software this may produce some audible alarm in the server room, a pop-up message on the serve console, a set of messages sent out to e-mail recipients, a pre-recorded automatic phone call to designated numbers, a warning to all users, etc. Match the features to how your system operates. A message on the sever room monitor is useless if nobody is there to watch 24/7. An alarm of this type begins a sequence that depends on the system design. In the simplest case where the UPS can support its load for 10 to 20 minutes, an orderly shut-down needs to begin almost immediately; larger UPS's may be able to delay shut-down for a short time. Users need warnings to cease use and sign off within a fixed time, and then the shut-down must begin. If you have staff 24/7 they may be responsible for action. If not, some automated system (usually software) must respond to the initial alarm and follow the sequence. In a few sophisticated systems it may begin only preliminary steps and then wait, monitoring the main supply. If it is re-established within a safe time frame the shut-down may be aborted and the entire system reset.

Ideally the shut-down should be controlled so that all pending operations are completed and the OS is shut down smoothly before power is turned off. This likely also requires dedicated software. It is never good enough to just warn someone (anyone out there listening?) and then shut off the UPS output. Even worse is just letting the UPS output decay as the battery wears down.

Likewise an orderly start-up is required when main power is restored. At the very least the computer should not be turned back on right away - the UPS should be allowed to start up and achieve stability before its load is connected. It is probably preferable for re-start of the computer system to require manual intervention by a person who pushes the switches and monitors the process for problems. Sometimes, however, that is not possible and some automated start-up process is needed.

Bottom line, a UPS protection system for a server center is not just a box you buy and plug in. There should be, at least, some communication and monitoring systems, plus plans for controlled shut-down and re-start, whether automated or manual.