What is the hardware/software required to backup say 5 servers and a
couple of workstations connected in windows 2003 network? The backup
has to be automated with minimum or zero human intervention. Also the
restore time should be minimum so that if my email server fails I will
be able to restore it completely (using an image or something like
that).

I was looking at IomegaŽ REV? 35GB/90GB which comes with Norton Ghost
and It's own backup software but I think the problem is that the
backup is not automated and I have to manually create an image for
each server/workstation. Also I'm not sure if a 90GB is enough, or is
it?

Thanks in advance.

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Clarification of Question by deluxe-ga on 28 Jul 2004 10:06 PDT

I also considered Raid (1 because it's least expensive). But Raid is
not really a backup because if my network get hacked or my data is
lost and can't recover them from a previous version.
of course Raid is great because I set it up and forget about it.

RAID is for hardware fault tolerance, it is not a disaster recovery strategy.

If no google answerers get to this by tomorrow I'll post some advice.

forge

If you are worried that 90gb won't be enough, and you want an
unattended solution, you are either in need of an expensive tape
array, or what I would recommend, a dedicated backups server with a
couple large hard drives in it that backs up images of all the systems
itself.

to  funkywizard-ga,

and where do I get this dedicated backup server that backup images. If
you're suggesting that I build it myself, what software do I need?

Backing up to another HD isn't a good backup solution. If you really
need a disaster recovery strategy then you need to backup your
information to tape. Hard drives are volatile media and are not a
reliable long term storage facility.

forge

More comments...

There will never be a zero interaction backup solution, someone will
need to be checking the backups to make sure that they ran
successfully, fixing any problems that caused them to fail and
rotating tapes in the tape drive/library so that the same tape isn't
being constantly used. Someone should also be arranging an off site
tape rotation that will house your monthly tape backups in an off site
location preferably in a fire proof safe.

For a small 5 server network I would say that Veritas BackupExec
running on one server with a small tape library from someone like
StorageTek or Dell should do the trick. A single drive, 10 tape
library should do the trick, go with either LTO gen2 or SDLT v2, but
LTO is slightly faster and is the technology that I tend to recommend.
You could also get by with using NTBackup and local tape drives, but
it will be more difficult to manage than if you used BackupExec on one
of the servers.

Note that with BackupExec you will need to purchase the backup
software, the Exchange plugin (if your mailserver is Exchange), a SQL
plugin if you use SQL anywhere and agents for each server you want to
backup. If you buy a tape library you will also need to purchase the
Tape Library option.

forge

I was looking at Veritas BackupExec and I think it's a good option for
centralized backup. I know that zero user intervention is impossible,
I should've said minimum.

Tape library is a bit expensive for a small network like mine. I'm
currently looking at Iomega Rev Drives as a cheaper alternative.

Thank you for the comments.

p.s. how come no body is answering? Is that normal?

I think the real questions are how much do you want to spend and how
much data do you need to back up and how much do you anticipate needed
in a few years?

You can back up using a hard drives as was previously said.  That can
be anything from one to an entire array.

I don't think it's appropriate to say tape isn't as volitile, its just
cheaper.  An HDD is just as stable, tape wears out and can be crinkled
in a heartbeat.  It's no more of a rock.  HDDs mostly wear out over
time.  However, if you're not running them needlessly all day, you
could get years and years out of one, maybe even a decade.

Backups only need to be run periodically, and you can come up with an
easy solution by just having one or two large hard drives connected to
the network via USB 2.0 to any single computer.  Run backup software
on a schedule to copy important data or an image on a periodical
basis.  If you have two drives, alternate the schedule between them in
case one replicates corrupted information.  Also, try to keep the
files copied to data you create.  Don't try to copy every single file
on a computer.  Basically, the only intervention there is turning the
drive on before this schedule happens.

Another reason why I like Hard Drives over tape is, have you ever had
to access something in a pinch on tape.  Give me a break!  Tape is too
slow.  Also Hard drives are more universally accepted across platforms
and computers, especially with USB.

So the basic configuration is:
1 or more USB 2.0 Hard Drives each with the capacity to hold all of
your anticipated data.  Format the drives wth NTFS.  You are running
XP I hope.

Backup software.
from http://www.servergraph.com
or http://www.veritas.com

In the alternative, you can backup your info on line and let the
backup service worry about the hardware.
http://www.ibackup.com/index.html

A hard drive backup is more volatile and should not be trusted as your
only source of backup. Tapes may wear out over time, but for my
monthly backups I am using them at most once a year, that will hardly
wear them out. Also, yes the tape may crinkle, but that is down to how
you manage your tapes and what kind of tapes you use. SDLT and DLT
tapes don't have exposed tape when they are out of the drive so this
sort of issue is at a minimum. Finally, when you use a hard drive for
a backup you're using one destination for your backups. With tapes you
are running with multiple daily tapes, weekly tapes and monthly tapes.
Not to mention any one off archive tapes you might use.

If the server that is housing my backups crashes, that is it all my
backups are gone. If I loose a tape, oh well I've got others. I might
have lost a few days worth of data, but at least I still have
something to restore with. Whether a hard drive is a volatile storage
media is more than just when the hard drive might fail.

forge

You might try this:


http://w3.connected.com/index.asp

I forgot to mention that I think HD backup is more suitable for me is
because i'm not looking to archive my backups for more than 2 weeks.

Thanks for the backup software suggestion. I also found that Symantec
V2I Management Console provides centralized network backup, but I
don't seem to find where to buy it.