Backup a SharePoint server

[befortin]

I read in "Windows IT Pro" (

http://www.windowsitpro.com/articles/print.cfm?articleid=49794)

that Galaxy Backup & Recovery is a really nice tool to backup SharePoint servers. I tried to look on Commvault's website, in forums, newsgroups, etc. but I can't find some information I'm looking for.

- Right now, I'm using ARCserve to backup all of my servers. I have only one backup server, and now I want to backup a SharePoint Portal 2003 server.

1 - Is Galaxy Backup & Recovery only working on a client/server kind of setup? I would prefer not having to install 2 backup software on the same backup server, since it would be annoying to schedule tasks, and I guess that some conflicts could happen between the 2 softwares... Plus, I don't want to use another tape drive or another backup server... So could I only install some software on the SharePoint server without having to install anything on some backup server? Can Galaxy work that way ("dump" the data on a remote network drive so that the data is then written to tapes by a backup server)? Or can I install the Galaxy software on the backup server that is already running ARCserver (assuming that Galaxy would only use some hard disk or network drive to dump its data)

2 - Where can I find some information about how to make this kind of setup and about how Galaxy works? There's not much technical information on Commvault's website (I don't see any manual or anything like that)?

3 - Does Galaxy needs lots of local disk space to make its backups or dumps (for example, I read in Windows IT Pro, about aveDoc, another software to backup SharePoint servers, that "To enable SQL Server database replication and backup, the client system needs to have available three times the disk space occupied by your SQL Server databases, because SPDR can't use remote disk space." - this would be a problem for me since the SQL database is already really huge (about 500 GB).

 

[birky]

You can compare CommVault to the likes of Veritas Netbackup, Legato Networker etc the main advantage for SharePoint with CommVault is that it lets you perform single document restores.

You would need the CommServe to manage your backups, Media Agent to write your backups to the storage and the SharePoint iDA's on the client (or clients if you have the SQL db seperate to the front end server).

It is not advisable to run 2 different backup products on the same server but, from experience I would say that you probably wouldn't have any problems except for if you were wanting to use the tape library for both (as they will both want to control the library controller by themselves).

Also you could install Galaxy on the SharePoint server if you have the SQL db on a seperate server to the front end (Galaxy uses a SQL db as well)but, again not advisable as you may run into performance issues I think.

You could setup the CommServe and Media Agent on your backup server and configure a magnetic library somewhere else as long as the MA can see it.

The space you need would be on the disk storage (magnetic library) and would differ dependant on your retention policies.

You are best contacting your local CommVault office (in Reading if you are in the UK) or find a reseller and ask them to do a demo for you.

Once you have used CommVault I think you will find that you may end up moving your backups from ArcServe to CommVault
;-)