Central Backup Unit recommendation ??

[protos]

Can anyone recommend a centralized backup configuration ?

We have about 12 servers we need to backup centrally,but
will probably need to setup like a NAS or snapserver
but would like to know others backup plans.

Is there such a thing as "snap-shot" backups like ghost
so you can recover the whole server at the time of failure quickly ??

thanks gang

 

[muddyjohn]

In quick....We all thought that with 9/11 our tapes would make a quick job of restoring the servers we lost. Think again.
We found that in real world, it was quicker to rebuild the OS and Apps..then recover data files only from tapes.

We have now built mirrored offsite servers and have a t1 line to offsite backup mirrored tape backup systems.

You must have a huge budget for a real life fail safe system. If you need any ideas, Please feel free to ask.

John@muddycomputers.com

 

[comtec17]

There is a product called Echoview from StorageTek that does online backup all the time. You could also use BareMetal restore from Veritas.

 

[Rols]

Centralised Backup....

I would still recommend a tape backup unit rather than a disk backup solution. Cost per meg is cheaper, I think that tapes are more reliable and you can duplicate & move tapes off site easily.

Its always nice to have a dedicated backup server to handle the backups, just plug in a tape library and away you go. Im a big fan of Veritas Backup Exec especially for a small environment like yours. It can backup all your file servers and application servers eg: Exchange, SQL, Lotus, Oracle etc.

One short fall of Backup Exec is the lack of NDMP support for NAS appliances & NAS filers, but there are easy workarounds.

Backup Exec has an "Intellegent Disaster Recovery" option which basically lets you restore a server from the bare metal state using the last full backup. (It takes some settingup but once you have done that its quick and easy to restore a server).

Hope this helps

 

[qzq]

Protos, I would look at the idealstor backup appliance which lets you use disk like tape so that they can be taken off site or kept on the shelf. It comes with license of Acronis True Image which is a great snapshot backup software.The only drawback is that it will only snapshot NT4 and windows 2000 and I beleive windows 2003. You can do disaster recovery by just inserting a cd and restoring a complete server without installing the OS. The site is

http://www.idealstor.com,

give them a call, these guys know what they are doing and are very helpful.