Can anyone recommend a Mirroring backup app? 1

[vchiu81]

Hi everybody,

I am currently using Veritas Backup Exec 8.6. It is working ok, but instead of having it saved as tape form I was looking to backup files on the fly/mirroring. I am looking for an app that will enable me to write/save files to two different servers at the same time so if one goes down then the other server will be up and ready to go without any loading of data needed. If know that Veritas has apps that will be able to do this, but I was wondering if anybody had any recommendations for any other programs out there.

Thanks.

 

[rhyno2k]

I'd be interested in something like this as well.

 

[NickCorlett]

I am very interested in this area too. I have been looking at Veritas Volume Replicator, however this requires that your second site is off-line until the point at which you need to use it, this seems a little overkill.

I have downloaded two other trial packages called PeerSync from PeerSoft.com and Avail replication Software from Avail.com, however I have not started evaluating these, I will post again once I have more news.

 

[comtec17]

StorageTek has a product called "Echoview" that will do realtime backups all the time directly to disk.

 

[vchiu81]

Thanks for the replies. I just checked out the "Echoview", it sounds great but it lists for approx $50,000! Too steep for my small company. Any more offordable solutions?

 

[rhyno2k]

vchiu,


Have you looked into FRS (and DFS) on Windows 2000/2003 Server?

 

[technome]

Look at "Double Take" from NSI software. Evaluation software downloadable.
Replicates at the byte level, unlike most replication software including MS replication. This software replicates change to files, not the entire file (most files types). To synchronize an entire 100 gig array takes under 2 hours ( once initially replicated), other replicating softwares I have tried take 12 hours. Resource use is acceptable; I have replicated during working hours with no noticeable slowdown to the network. SunBelt software discounted the software, which is not cheap. Lists at about $8400.00 for two licences for Advanced server, believe I got it for $6200.00. Standard wk2 server is cheaper.
Very easy to install, tech support was very good. Can be set up to have automatic "failover" or not. Can replicate volumes, directories or individual files.
As far as I am concerned, a tape backup is still needed; replcation does not protect you from file corruption. Great software.

 

[qzq]

I have used Double Take and recommend it. Lists at $2495/- per server and can failover automatically if required, though I do not recommend that.

 

[josepablomir]

Why don't you take a look at NetWare?
You can build very cost-effective NAS, and use it on mixed environments. It has Multiprocessor and Clustering support out of the box!

You can set up a cluster of two NetWare-based NAS, and even you can use RAID in each of them for extra protection.
Speed is very good, and reliability is not an issue for NetWare.

NSS allows very big volumes, and those volumes can be incremented on the fly.

If your organizations are small, less than 100 users, you can implement the solution for peanuts!

Hope this help.

Jose.-


_________________
Pablo Mir

http://www.pablomir.com

pm@pablomir.com
NJ, (973) 699-2043

 

[Rols]

Assuming this is only a file server, what about using DFS?? Its included with Win - so essentially its free.

 

[Eddiefdz]

In addition to Rols comment,

Yes DFS works very well. I started to implement it and it seems to work great. I have about 550gb of file serving which I have replicated to another machine. DFS maintains all the links and if the main server where all the files exist happens to die, then you will still have your real-time data already replicated and your users will not even know that a server is down. The only thing is that WIN2K does file level replication. There is software out there such as Availl Replication, which also does the replication for you but it does it at the byte level and it only replicates the changes; in other words it is faster than just using WIN2K. I am going to keep using WIN2K for a couple of weeks to see how it does, if i think its too slow I am just going to purchase the Availl software for my servers. Oh and one more thing. The initial replication process will probably take a couple of days since there is so much data to replicate at the beginning. For me it took about 2 days to completely replicated everything. But once its done then as soon as you create a file, it gets replicated.

As you guys try this out, please post your findings.

Eddie Fernandez
CCNA, Network+, A+, MCP