need help setting up back up server for office use.

[Amplicom]

Hi guys, i am looking for some guidance on setting up a backup server because i have never done it before.
It doesnt need to do any imaging of HD but just to back up folders on each(10) computers.

What kind of computer set up should I make? doesnt need to be too complex, just simple and very reliable.
Also I know there are some back up programs out there that help. I'm thinking about retrospect. Do you guys have any opinions on this or anything else?

what raid configuration? Mobo? CPU? what type of HD?

thanks for your help!

 

[ojai00]

At work, we just back up to another drive. Other than the primary C drive, which is an IDE drive, the other drives are all SCSI. All the servers are using Xeon processors, but that's going to be kind of expensive. We just use the backup program that comes with Windows, and it's been doing the job. You'd be better off just getting a SCSI drive (RAID maybe?) XP 1900+ or higher to be on the high end. All you really need is a fast hard drive IMO and a good network connection. Hope this helps.

 

[Thor86]

If you want to create a redundancy for your data drive, then any of the modern IDE Raid controller cards setup for mirroring, plus 2 identical IDE drives should suffice. If you are looking for backup server peripherals, then I suggest depending on your requirements (open file backups), and OS (Win9x or NT/2K) you should seriously look into Onstream optical backup drives. It's available in IDE and SCSI versions and comes with the its own Echo backup software which works great. It's also compatible with Veritas Backup Exec. They come in 30 or 50 gig backup drives/tapes in a 2 : 1 software compression ratio. What's also good about this is that it's VERY FAST reads for any file recovery/restore work.

 

[Tallgeese]

FIRST: How valuable is this data to the business?
How much data are we talking about backing up, and at what interval?
How long is the backup window?

NOTE: Redundant drives and/or drive subsystems are NOT considered any kind of backup at all from a disaster recovery standpoint!!!! :|

 

[milagro]

Yeah, I'm curious to know more about your setup and why you feel you would need an additional box....unless you want a backup dns/dhcp/web etc server its not apparant to me...

At work, I've got on w2k server serving files(mainly graphics/word docs/spreadsheets/small database files) for 7 clients...my boss wouldn't let me utilize any type of RAID arrangement (don't ask) but there's a tape drive on the server, so I just do incremental backups during the week with full backups on the weekend and keep additional full backup copies offsite....While its not the way I'd like to do things, I have been able to successfully restore w/ no problems in the past and this has worked well for this size office.

 

[err]

Amplicom,

We can definitely help you better if we know your environment better and know how important are the data to you. You can also give us a dollar figure on your budget. A description on what platform you're running would also help

From what you've said, it seems like you're wanting to backup your folders on different computers to a centralized backup server. Sure this is doable, depending on your budget, different solutions would apply. For a decent budget, I would invest on Backup software like veritas or arcserve where you can do a remote backup, open-file options, or even SQL / exchange server backup. Create a backup server (doesn't need to be dedicated backup server, but would be nice if you have one) with big-assed drive and a simple tape device attatched to it. Do your backup on BOTH the drive and tape device.

If you are tight on budget, you can always warn your users to save and close their work prior to leaving work and schedule a batch job to do a remote copy of files to your centralized server. You can then use MS Backup to backup your data to a tape device.

If you have extra resources, invest in a NAS like Snap!. It is reasonable and can provide a LIVE backup for you. You can then schedule a tape backup off hours.

Your server config would depend on your backup software. You might not even need a dedicated backup server to do this.

This all depends on how much you want do backup, how important it is and how serious your company is taking the backup for (budget).

 

[Amplicom]

Okay, to answer all your questions:
would be easier to have a dedicated backup server?
This is to back up some pretty important data, but not all the computers will have big/important things, just a few.

Running win2k: should i use professional or server?
I think that a tape drive and a big hard drive would work. how does $800 sound for HD, CPU, MOBO, TAPEDRIVE, and backup software.

 

[Woodie]

$800 won't even buy you a decent sized tape drive. (Compaq 35/70 DLT goes for ~$2000, each tape is $100, and it will backup 35 (or 70 compressed) gig.

That said...how much data do you need to backup? I've seen 2.5 gig 8mm tape drives (used) for <$50.

Do you currently have any servers? I'm guessing you don't. Going on that assumption, I'm going to suggest that you buy a "file server", and create a shared folder for each user on the server. Instruct all the users to save any important files to the folder on file server. (We call them "homedirs"). Include the tape drive in the cost of the server, and back the server up every night, as per the instructions posted.

If you go this way, you'll need W2K server (to support all the client connections), and I would use the backup utility that's included in W2K. Make sure the tape drive is SCSI, and you'll probably want the HDs SCSI as well, to better handle concurrent read/write requests.

How much is the data worth? As in, how much would it cost the company if one persons HD goes bad, and they lose data? How much if the whole office was flooded or had a lightning strike, and all the PCs were lost? (BTW, these questions are for the Business people in the office, not the IT folks.)

Keep the answers coming...and we'll post more questions!

 

[Amplicom]

thanks for all your help guys!

 

[ishmael2k]

Actually if you do some shopping you can get some good deals on tape drives. I just purchased a Compaq 15/30g DLT scsi with 14 tapes (Most have only been used 1-2 times) for $70.00 This is going in our file server (PP180, 128mb ram, running NT4 with 2 4.25 UW drives) and I'll be doing weekly backups right now, with daily as the system grows.

I have less than $250 into the entire setup and for the size and needs of our network it is fine.

All this system does is act as a file server for 7 stations (Each of which have their own storage, this really gets to be a pain but they are all owned by their indivual users.) I am hoping to expand the servers capabilities as the need arises (And my experience grows ).

Look around, ask on the F/S forum, you might be surprised at what you can pick up cheap.


good luck

Rb