OT - Back up solution

ProviaFan

Lifer
Mar 17, 2001
14,993
1
0
Wow! I want one, not so much for the storage (as I would have more storage than I could ever need with a backup server of only 4 200GB drives in RAID 5), but for all the Athlon MPs that could be running a DC project. :p
 

SoulAssassin

Diamond Member
Feb 1, 2001
6,135
2
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They missed one major component of backups. Moving the data offsite, moving IDE (or any hard drives) is not nearly as safe/easy as moving DLT/LTO/whatever tapes. Did they save some money over a tape solution? Maybe. Is it faster. Depends on what you're comparing it to. Are they screwed if they have a fire in there data center? Yup. Does that cancel out the cost savings? Damn right.

BTW, we just bought a pair of these to go with some of these and I'm pushing to get another CX600 with ATA drives which will be used for onsite disk2disk backups, however, we'll still be running backups of the ATA Clariion and sending those offsite.
 

MoFunk

Diamond Member
Dec 6, 2000
4,058
0
0
At my work we are using tape, and we are storing them off site via a carrier service as part of our disaster recovery sceme. We have talked about a backup server that we could use in case I need to recover data (RIGHT NOW) so I don't have the one day wait. This article helped me support my voice for an inexpensive IDE backup server solution. They have talked about a SAN (overkill for us) and then they had specs on some NAS that had hot swap scuzzy and such, then I told them that we could build a lower cost dual MP system and use IDE for the raid. They almost scoffed the idea off. They are still brainwashed into thinking that the ONLY possible solution is intel and scsi. Well this helped me show them the AMD is ready for prime time and has been for a while, they are not just a cheap chip I told them. Then with the IDE they laughed saying that no one in their right mind would use IDE as a raid solution.....well here ya go.
 

RaySun2Be

Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
16,565
6
71
WoW! :D

I have seen a similar, much smaller setup using IDE Raid. The nice thing about raid, SCSI or IDE is that if you have a hot swap spare in place or not, you just remove the bad HD and replace and away you go.

SoulAssassin, they do not have to physically move the hard drives off-site. They can set up another backup unit(s) at a remote location fo an off-site disaster recovery site. In fact the article stated that the units didn't even have to reside together, just needed a gigabyte connection to the network.

Before I got laid off, we were testing software that captures data as it's being changed, and if the server(s) that is is a mirror of dies, it takes over immediately with little or no data loss. It also didn't need to be co-located with the servers it was backing up. I wasn't involved with the project, and I don't know if they ever put it into production or not. There were plans to place one of these backup servers at each of the 4 data center locations to back up one or more of the other sites as part of our disaster recovery program.
 

amcdonald

Diamond Member
Feb 4, 2003
4,012
0
0
I'm impressed that someone set this up and it actually works, however the fire hazard does negate the cost benefits.
I'm sure its faster in terms of restoring data though... No one wants to wait for the backup tapes when something fails.