New to backup procedures, need a guide.

[Lizardkng]

Hello, and thanks in advance for your help.

I am a rather inexperienced Network admin for a small public service agency. We are about to purchase a NAS device from Dell (725n) and I have no idea what backup procedures to implement. (will happily provide NAS specs if needed)

We run a small domain, 1 w2k Domain Controller, and about 10 w2k pro clients. We use our server to store user profiles, and a few MS Access databases.

The new NAS device will come with Veritas 9.0 Backup Exec Remote Server Pack, which I have never even seen.

My questions are basically:

a) What do I backup, and how often? (Entire domain controller?, databases only?, daily, weekly, etc?)

b) Should I bother to backup up any of the w2k pro clients?

c) When I was tinkering with Windows Backup, I saw Incremental backup and some other option, whats the difference?

I will gladly read any online guides that you can direct me to (rather than pester you guys with long explanatory posts here), Ive searched the web for what Im looking for, but just cant seem to find a good "guide for the new guy".

Thank you again.

 

[KimberTech]

http://www.itsecurity.com/tutor/introductiontobackup.htm

A perfect start for you.

In addition, look at the help documentation and website from the manufacturer of the product you will be using, including any support areas.
This will let you know if there are any known issues in advance.

Once you have a handle on the basics, if you still have questions you can post them in the fora.

As far as what to back up, every situation is unique.

You need to assess how often data changes on each unit, and decide how often and how much.
Decide at this time how long you can have the network doing a backup also.

You can do a full backup once a week and just log the incremental changes during the week if it suits your purpose.

You will have a much better idea what you need to look at once you have done some reading.

Good Luck!

Kimber

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