Looking to move to Disk Based Backup

[DJCopa]

Hello There.

We are looking at moving to a disk based backup solution, and are after some advice.
We currently house 7 Windows based servers, including Windows 2000/2003/Exchange/SQL. These are backed up using DAT/DLT drives, and Arcserve v9 / 11.1 . We are finding that some jobs are now spanning 2 tapes, and the backups are not always functional. We would like to look into a disk based solution for daily backups, but are unsure of the best way of progressing this. Is ARCserve any good with Disk Based harware? How would we incorporate a tape to be used once a week for data storage? What additional hardware
requirements are needed?

Apologies is this sounds vague - Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

 

[birky]

Hi

Don't know that much about ArcServe as we deal with CommVault Galaxy which is excellent for d2d2t as they have a auxilliary copy facility which is simple to setup for copying backups to tape without having to touch the client again.

It seems that ArcServe is a little bit behind the times and it may be worth your time doing some research...there's a good review here

http://www.networkcomputing.com/showitem.jhtml?articleID=170701106&pgno=7

 

[DJCopa]

Thanks for this Birky. The fact that you have mentioned CommVault has made me happy! It's the one I'm looking at, as reviews seem to be very good. Think you are right about ArcServe - It really does seem to be behind the times.
I'm booked onto the Storage Expo 2005 and will have a look at the CommVault Demo. The bit about copying to tape souns good - This was my one concern, but you seem to have it cracked!

Thanks Again.

 

[birky]

No problem mate....I have dealt with a few clients who have swapped out ArcServe for CommVault and they have been really pleased with it.

 

[willjwill]

We use an ejectable disk to disk solution that we used to replace tape and Commvault did not work in our environment. They had a hard time recognizing removable disk media. We tried to open a ticket with tech support but were lost in a black hole. We were looking to move away from tape by going to disk so their solution wasn't the best fit.

I would recommend Backup Exec (spanning on disks), Arcserve (easy GUI and setup) or Ibac Dat Protection (native format and no agents).

 

[birky]

Hi willjwill

Looks like you have had a bad experience there, I have been dealing with CommVault for a couple of years now and I find the support to be top notch...was your support contract direct with CommVault as their support model usually means that end users are supposed to log support calls with a partner who then manages the case through to completion.

 

[richw1234]

Hi,

The company I work for is running disk based backups, the piece of advice I will give you is make sure you purchase a solid piece of kit to backup to. Once you have this, you will find backing up more reliable and quicker. Arcserve is Arcserve and will no doubt always have it's little quirks.