Can ARCserve control several units? 1

[ipl001]

Hi everyone,

I would like to improve my backup installation:
- parallel network with Gbps rate (I mean 2 network adapters in every data server)
- reserved backup server (ARCserve only)
- several Backup units connected to that server via WideSCSI
- about 10 data servers plus 50 laptops
- 300 GB data overall at the moment; would like to add any program as well... maybe Disaster Recovery
- of course, access to the servers at night when possible (see laptop backup).

My questions:
- Can I connect 2 or 3 sDLT tape units to a single server? I suppose I could use the WideSCSI chain... practicaly, how many units? maybe several SCSI cards?
- Will ARCserve be able to lead several units? Will several jobs be run (one per unit of course)? How many licences (one ARCserve install with multi-job-manager)?

Thanks for your answers! ;-)

My present system:
- 5 ARCserve's installed (2 DLTs, 2 sDLTs, 1 LTO Ultrium 1)
- about 10 data servers plus 50 laptops
- 300 GB data overall at the moment
- Backups run in the night except copies of "My Documents" from several laptops in the day (laptop-to-serverdisk in the day and serverdisk-to-tape in the night)

Have a good day,

Gérard from Paris, France

 

[ipl001]

... I forgot to write:
ARCserve 2000 on W2K Server

Have a good day,
Gérard from Paris, France

 

[davidmichel]

ARCserve can handle the tape drives no problem. Put no more than two DLT tape drives on a single SCSI bus. The limitiing factor is going to be memory. Each job running is going to need memory so more jobs running at the same time means more memory is needed (sorry I don't have a calculation for it). I've worked with people who were running six jobs at a time with no problems.

Database size can be a concern, and so you need to think about either using SQL or keeping the size under controle.

Also you need to setup different groups. All the tape drives in the same group will be used so that when the first drive fills up it will automaticly go to the next tape drive in the group. So it is important that only the same drives are used in the same group. In your case it is better to setup a different group for each job you want running at the same time.

Additional licensing is not needed.

If your interested they also have a product for laptop backups. I'm not familure with it, I think it is called Mobile Backup. It works by syncing up the files when they log into the server.

 

[ipl001]

Hi davidmichel, hi everybody,

Thanks a lot for responding immediately! ;-) impressive!
Sorry not to have written before! I saw your post early this morning -Paris Time-, but couldn't answer because of a hectic day!

I am not used to tek-tips forums but I guess you deserve a click on "Thank davidmichel for this valuable post!"! Thank you very much for your so precious lines!

Some additional words about my laptop backup system if somebody is interested: "laptop-to-serverdisk in the day and serverdisk-to-tape in the night" because
- laptop-to-serverdisk is a bit faster than laptop-to-tape and saves some time in daytime
- laptop-to-disk allows quick incremental copy
- laptop-to-disk keeps the newest version on the disk so that the disk-to-tape of the last day of the month will always backup data onto the tape... as I keep the latest tape of the month, I'm sure to have data for each user... what I wouldn't with a laptop-to-tape if the user were not in his/her office!
You are right! I copy data from the laptops at fixed time and "Mobile Backup" would improve my system!... but how did you know I needed it? ;-)

Have a good day,

Gérard from Paris, France