I need a new backup strategy-what's yours?

[cgwillard]

I am looking for some guidance for our network backup job. Here is our current situation:

·We back up 215 GB every night from 10 servers.
·We use 2 Sony AIT tape drives.
·We also use an Exabyte tape library with AME tapes.
·Daily backup job takes a total of 40 hours on three separate drives.

I’m looking for better ways to backup more data in less time. So, I’m checking around to see what type of backup strategies everyone else is using.

Can you share the following information with me?
·How often do you back up your data?
·Do you perform full, incremental, differential backups, or a combination of these?
·How much data do you back up?
·How long do your backup jobs take?
·What type of backup software do you use?
·What backup devices do you use?
·Do you have a written backup strategy/disaster recovery plan that you could share with me?
·Do you store any backup tapes off-site?

Thank you very much for your help!
cgwillard
Only 25 years until retirement!

 

[cgreen]

1. Consider running differential jobs.
2. Consider putting the drives on dedicated servers with enough storage to replicate all the data local before running your backups. I backup remote locations this way using robocopy to perform change-based replication.
3. Consider a dedicated backup network between the servers using Gig-E or something like that.

Chris Green

 

[cgwillard]

Thanks for your help. cgwillard
Only 25 years until retirement!

 

[ddaily]

I am backing up about 800 gig a night. With Dlt VI I was stretching the limit. With 6 drives I was using about 8 tapes a day and it too about 10 hours. I just got a Dell 136 Super Dlt library with 6 drives. I use about 3 tapes a day and it takes about 4 hours. It flys!! As long as Arcserve is having a good day.