Backup system recommendations for domain

[PaulGillespie]

We're refreshing our backup/DR system and looking for some advice on a good, solid and reliable backup system, all advice welcome.

We have:
2 x 2003 DCs
1 x 2003 Exchange
1 x SQL2005 server
1 x 2008 TS
Currently use Backup exec 11 and 2 x LTO2 tape drives to backup all the servers, full backup each night. Tapes changed on a daily basis and a month end backup for archiving.

We're wanting to change the backup system as we now have a fibre link to another building on the same campus, this will give us a shorter backup window and an offsite backup without changing tapes on a daily basis. Month end backups for archiving will still take place using the LTO2 tape drives and then stored off site in a 3rd location.

I was thinking of installing a big 2003/2008 server with about 6TB of disk space in the offsite location and upgrading to backup exec 12.5 and running full backups at the weekend and incrementals during the week. we want to keep 4 weeks worth of backups. Although this is fairly standard, anyone think i might be missing a trick here?

Cheers
Paul

 

[acl03]

We use backup exec 12.5, I love it. We do not use Exchange or SQL Server, so I can't help you there.

Here is how I handle backups for our 2003 domain (the domain itself). I use a couple different methods to get backups.

1. I use the BackupExec Active Directory agent to do nightly system state backups on one of our DCs. This DC is also a GC and DNS server. I highly recommend this. The AD Agent from BackupExec makes single-item restores very simple, and it is not very expensive.

2. One of our Domain Controllers is a virtual server, running in the free VMWare within windows. This DC is also a GC and DNS server. Every night, this VM is shut down, copied off to another server, then turned back on. This process is scripted. This other server to which I copy the VM is backed up nightly by Backup Exec.

This allows us to restore the domain from any night as far back as our backups take us. It only adds about 6GB a night to our backup set.


What's running on your Terminal Server that you would want to back up?

Thanks,
Andrew

Hard work often pays off over time, but procrastination pays off right now!

 

[unclerico]

you absolutely need to look into DataDomain or ExaGrid. Deduplication and replication are keys. You can then complement the dedupe devices with a monthly archive to tape. Both DD and ExaGrid are certified to work with BackupExec.

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[NortonES2]

Another product which we use is the DXi from quantum which is a disk based backup solution providing virtual tape drives and de duplication functionality.

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If it doesn't leak oil it must be empty!!

 

[PaulGillespie]

Thanks for the recommendations, i'll look into them.

Cheers!