Looking for hard drive based backup solution 1

[PPettit]

I'm looking for a hard drive based backup solution for four Windows Server 2003 machines.

Currently, we're backing up a combined total of about 75Gb each night. Software is BackupExec 10 and hardware is a Certance CDL432 autoloader (up to six DAT72 tapes). This setup will probably be kept for the sake of redundancy/long term storage.

This is what I'd like:
1. Hot swappable drives
2. Durable (To withstand nightly drive insertions/removals for the purposes of off site storage.)
3. Capability to copy open files (primarily, a Progress datbase)
4. Reliable
5. Fast
6. Expandable (I foresee our storage needs increasing to 100GB or more in the near future. I might even start backing up workstation data so I'll need the capability to add even more storage)
7. Disaster recovery
8. Connectivity (Ethernet or USB, no eSATA or Firewire ports on current machines, but would consider adding an adapter)

Anyone have any recommendations? I'm more interested in hardware suggestions because it looks like I can upgrade to BE12.5 which now includes disaster recovery and open file copying.

 

[wahnula]

Since you're content with your software, I'd recommend a USB/FW HDD with room enough for (5) full backups, in your case, since you're planning on >100GB backups in the future, I would recommend getting (3) 1TB drives like this one:

http://www.directron.com/st31000340as.html

along with (3) cases like this:

http://www.directron.com/me740psbk.html

Make sure the case has its own power supply (not USB powered) and made of aluminum for best cooling without a fan (fans break).

I like to assemble my own external drives rather than spending a premium for assembly and bundling of a "free" (yeah right) app for backup that you don't need. You will also avoid any NAS-like proprietary file system that might make the drive less useful. I like having the option to plug the drive directly into the mainboard for faster recovery if necessary.

My philosophy of the (3) drives that can hold (5) backups (or more) on each is to swap (2) of them daily and rotate the third weekly as an off-site drive. This way you should have enough backups to get a good one that's not too old. You can take the daily-swap drive home with you if you like, but the more they get transported the better the chance for physical damage.

I would expect to get (3) years out of each drive. When I implemented this backup plan on my own system back in 2005, my data needs were small enough that I could (and did) use laptop drives, which are tougher and stand more harsh handling. I started with 120GB drives, my next ones will be 320GB and I still plan on using 2.5" drives. They have survived being dropped and thrown around in my backpack (one stays with me at all times) so I know they're tough, and their smaller size makes them easier to transport.

Best of luck to you, hopefully you will never need to use ANY of them.

Tony

Users helping Users...

 

[PPettit]

Thanks for the info, wahnula. You made some good points that I had not even considered (i.e. proprietary file systems and the durability of laptop drives). Assembling my own drives definitely makes sense.

 

[wahnula]

Glad you found the info useful. In case you can't tell, I'm a backup freak and need little prompting to spew my agenda ...BTW I keep a second HDD onboard for another prong to my backup plan. The one time I needed to recover from backup that's what I used, very convenient and fast.

Tony

Users helping Users...

 

[wahnula]

One last (and VERY important) note...if you're backing up a Windows platform be sure you stop the USB drive using the "Safely Remove Hardware" tool before hot-swapping. This avoids the dreaded "delayed write error" that can corrupt the data.

If, instead of stopping the drive, you get the message "this device is in use and cannot be stopped at this time" even when it's obviously NOT in use (or shouldn't be) then log off and log back on to stop the drive.

Tony

Users helping Users...

 

[mofusjtf]

You could also explore Dell's RD1000. Or products from CRU-Dataport.com are good. Both are disk based backups that are hot swap.

 

[willjwill]

Take a look at this from Idealstor.

http://www.idealstor.com/teralyte.html

We use it for our backups. It comes with backup software but you can also use BE. They also include management software for managing the disks so you don't have to do some of the things with Windows suggested by Tony.

J Will

http://www.designourday.com

 

[wahnula]

YOW those Teralyte boxes are expen$ive! $2000 for a drive holder? Without the drive? That must be some special management software!

Seriously what protects the drive during transport? There are lots of hot-swap hard-drive holders that are 1/4 the price. It does LOOK good though...

Tony

Users helping Users...