USB External 2.0 Hard Drive in Netware 6.5 SP5

[pilonbrad]

Hey,

We have two Netware 6.5 SP5 servers with Zenworks 4.01 ir7. Both servers
are in different trees. Our network is running at 100Mp/s.

Unfortunately, other than using RAID1 we have never had a backup and
restore procedure in place at this high school. I've only been working at
this school for a little over 2 years and have seen a few disasters
already with lots of important data lost.

I'm making a recommendation to backup the servers.

I've already researched several software backup and restore software such
as Backup Exec and Novanet and it looks like we will be purchasing Novanet
10 from Novastor because the Technical support is great!

Now for the media aspect:

We are not a wealthy school and don't have much funding.

Tape drives are considered expensive for our scool board. I looked into
NAS and SAN as well and they can get very costly as well.

One of Novanet Tech Support people said that I can attach a USB 2.0
External Hard drive directly to the Netware 6.5 SP5 server which is being
backed up because Novanet allows for creating Virtual Tape Libraries.

He also stated that by attaching a USB 2.0 External Hard Drive directly to
the Netware 6.5 SP5 server backing up will be much faster than backing up
across the LAN such as what a NAS does.

Also, USB 2.0 External Hard Drive are the cheapest media to back up to,
which is good for our school boards budget!

My only concern is that will a Netware 6.5 SP5 server autmatically detect
a USB 2.0 External Hard Drive or is there something that has to be done
such as installing a patc etc.?

Also, do I have to manually mount the USB 2.0 External Hard Drive or will
it automatically mount when I have to reboot the server or bring it down
then back up for example? Is there documentation as well on how to setup, configure, mount, and making it hot swappable for a USB 2.0 External Hard Drive in Netware 6.5 SP5?

P.S. Going into Remote Manager and then going to Manage Hardware and then Usb Devices, it shows that the USB 2.0 External Hard Drive is recognized and it shows the speed as High (USB 2.0). Also, the logger screen at the server shows that the USB 2.0 External Hard Drive has been detected.

Thank You!

 

[marvhuffaker]

How much money (measurable and non-measurable) has your school lost each time you have a disaster? I'm sure the cost far outweighs the cost of a good backup solution. Usually with a disaster, as well as downtime, it's difficult to measure how much it's actually costing you.. If you considered all factors, you'd be installing a tape library right now.

I caution people against using Novanet. Every time you patch your server, your Novanet will break. And then you fight with Novanet to get them to release a fix that works with the support pack. Usually they are 1-2 support packs behind.

It's true you can connect a USB drive to a NetWare server and use it for backups. However, keep in mind that you will have exactly one (1) backup. That's not a good way to do a rotation where you have numerous separate backups on tape, perhaps going back several months or years. If you were to setup a rotation using multiple USB drives, the cost will ultimately be higher than a decent tape library.

Many of the schools around here use Commvault and it works great. You could also look at Syncsort. Both work well on NetWare, OES, GroupWise, and are cross platform for Windows and other Linux/Unix flavors.

Just my $143 worth.

Marvin Huffaker, MCNE

http://www.redjuju.com

See me speak at GWAVACON Jan 21-23 in Dallas.

http://www.redjuju.com/company/events.htm

 

[marvhuffaker]

Just a note to prove my point about Novanet's lack of support for NetWare.

http://www.network-backup.com/tech_supt/nnet_support.html#compatibility

Look on the right hand side at the OS's they support. They require NetWare 6.5 SP2 or SP3. Not SP4 or SP5. Don't think that you'll be okay running SP4 or SP5, you won't. It will most likely not work. Keep in mind that SP3 was released almost 2 years ago.

Marvin Huffaker, MCNE

http://www.redjuju.com

See me speak at GWAVACON Jan 21-23 in Dallas.

http://www.redjuju.com/company/events.htm

 

[pilonbrad]

Thanks for the reply!

You are correct about the fact that if you only have one External USB 2.0 Hard drive attatched to each of the Netware 6.5 SP5 servers that you can only have one backup.

Where as a tape drive will allow you to have more backups because of having several tapes.

Unfortunately, the school board views tape drives as being costly. I explained the benfits of tapes versus External USB 2.0 Hard Drives as you mentioned but they still prefer External USB 2.0 Hard Drives over tape drives.

What they want to do is purchase two External USB 2.0 Hard Drives for their Admin Server and Student server which are both Netware 6.5 SP5, so that they will have two backups for each server, there will be a total of four External USB 2.0 Hard Drives needed.

Do you know the answers to my questions in my previous post?
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Do I have to manually mount the USB 2.0 External Hard Drive or will it automatically mount, when I pug in the External USB 2.0 Hard Drive, when I have to reboot the server or bring it down then back up for example? Is there documentation as well on how to setup, configure, mount, and making it hot swappable for a USB 2.0 External Hard Drive in Netware 6.5 SP5?

P.S. Going into Remote Manager and then going to Manage Hardware and then Usb Devices, it shows that the USB 2.0 External Hard Drive is recognized and it shows the speed as High (USB 2.0). Also, the logger screen at the server shows that the USB 2.0 External Hard Drive has been detected.
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So your recommendation is Commvault or S[yncsort overt Novastor (Novanet 10)?

I will look into both software companies!

P.S. Unfortunately, I don't make the financial decisions with this Board, I the technican and offered my advice but they still want to go with backing up to External USB 2.0 Hard Drives.

Thanks again!