What kind of backup device do all you sysadmins use?

[smp]

I've been told to get a DAT drive.
I know there are a few types, but I don't know anything about backing up a server (win2k)... I know that tape drives are commonly used (right?)
So, anyone know much about the different backup mediums and what the pros and cons are?

 

[Vegito]

What size are you looking for ?

DLT has been more popular, range from 20/40; 40/80 (Uncompress/Compress)

SDLT have higher range of over 220 compressed.

There are LTO that recently been introduced (2 years ago maybe)

I looked at both. If you have existing library, get SDLT from DLT. Other wise, might be good to get LTO. I believe LTO has higher capacity but SDLT has been keeping up.

Another idea is to get an auto-loader for DLT, ie 8 tape DLT loader = 8x40 compress tapes = 320 Gigs. Otherwise you'll be using 1 SDLT tape to do a est ~200 meg backup.

Whats your price range ?

 

[Alptraum]

Depends on what you are backing up. A few years ago I ordered 3 dedicated backup servers. Each one has 5 external DLT drives in a RAID array. Since I upgraded the netwrok to fiber I yanked all the DAT drives that were in every server in every location (about 40) and just consolidated everything at the main office so I could back up all the remote servers over the network.

However, it doesnt sound like you need anything that extreme. It sounds like you are just backing up one server. Correct? If so the first thing you will want to do is figure out what kind of space you need. 1 gig? 10 gigs? 200 gigs? You get the idea. Unless you are on a real tight budget I would go DLT. Its fast (for tape) and has large capacities. But if that is out of your price range there are a number of other tape drive types out there. You can get some of the TRAVAN 10 and 20 (20 and 40 gig compressed)gig stuff pretty cheap. In general you will definetly be wanting to look at some sort of tape drive. The cost per gig and realibility of tapes is great. You can get the older 35/70 gig DLT drives for under a grand now. But the 40/80 ones are more up to date. Hopefully this answered some of your questions. If you have more specific ones feel free to ask and Ill do my best to answer.

 

[techfuzz]

Depending on how many computers you need to backup and at what speed is going to be the driving force behind your backup strategy. You don't want to go blindly into picking a solution. You have to plan for 2-3 years down the road. For instance, if you are planning on backing up a single computer then a DAT or single DLT might suffice. If you plan on backing up more than 1 computer, you should start looking into autoloading DLT libraries along with an backup accelerator like Backup Exec from Veritas. For large groups of computers or large amounts of data that need to be backed up frequently or quickly, you might need to look into a solution that support Fiber Channel. There are just too many variables that really only you can determine the best solution for backup.

techfuzz

 

[smp]

Thanks guys. We will be backing up one win2k domain controller that will house users' home directories and profiles. Their home directories don't get backed up, but I think their profiles do. Anyways, I don't know anything about backup software, not just hardware ... I'm having a hard time understanding all this stuff you're all talking about
I'm gonna try to read up on it when I get some time but in the meantime I'de appreciate some "backup for idiots" type comments

 

[RustyNale]

Sounds like a Travan 10/20GB IDE tape drive would work just fine for your needs. Just install it, load the software, configure it to do nightly backups and you're off and running. Make sure to get a tape for each day of the week + 1 extra so you can have a copy off site in case something happens to the building where your server is stored.

 

[smp]

Hmmmm..
well, here's the deal... the tech here has told me to find a DAT drive for as cheap as possible. I was wondering why it HAD to be a dat and they couldn't exactly explain that part to me, but it doesn't matter.
What is the difference between different drives?
Thanks for the replies though, I'm understanding more now.

 

[Markfw]

You can find a SCSI DLT 35/70 external on ebay for about $500. All you need is a SCSI card and a cable and tapes. Then go into the backup software on 2k, and select incrmental (meaning only files changed since the last backup), and schedule the job.

 

[Vegito]

Originally posted by: Markfw900
You can find a SCSI DLT 35/70 external on ebay for about $500. All you need is a SCSI card and a cable and tapes. Then go into the backup software on 2k, and select incrmental (meaning only files changed since the last backup), and schedule the job.

You know that tape drive head has limited life right ? Unless you buy a new one, you're risking ur data, why bother backing up. Exactly how big are you backing up ? My home directory is 45 gigs, I have a total of 2.4 tb of data. So let us know

 

[smp]

We're going to be buying new.
Backing up about ~10 gigs, no more than that i don't think.
What is the difference between DLT and DAT?

 

[Alptraum]

What is the difference between DLT and DAT?

DLT is newer and has a larger capacity and more speed among other things. If you are doing under 10 gigs you might as well get a Travan drive. You can get the 10/20 gig ones for a few hundred and the 20/40 gig ones for abit more. Its old tech. But reliable and will probably meet all your needs just fine for a long time as long as you dont forsee a major increase in the size of data you need to back up in the next year or two.

 

[smp]

Originally posted by: Alptraum
What is the difference between DLT and DAT?

DLT is newer and has a larger capacity and more speed among other things. If you are doing under 10 gigs you might as well get a Travan drive. You can get the 10/20 gig ones for a few hundred and the 20/40 gig ones for abit more. Its old tech. But reliable and will probably meet all your needs just fine for a long time as long as you dont forsee a major increase in the size of data you need to back up in the next year or two.

So DLT, DAT and travan are all different?

 

[Alptraum]

So DLT, DAT and travan are all different?

Yep

 

[smp]

Originally posted by: Alptraum
So DLT, DAT and travan are all different? Yep

And will they all work with win2k's backup utility?

 

[everman]

Originally posted by: smp

Originally posted by: Alptraum
So DLT, DAT and travan are all different? Yep

And will they all work with win2k's backup utility?

They should.

 

[corkyg]

What I use is a duplicate hard drive - in fact I have three of them. There is no restoration needed - just clone as frequently as your loss of data warrants. No restoration needed. TIme to get back on line is minimal.

Duplicate HDDs are cheaper than tape drives and tapes, and more efficient. Just flip a switch and you are back up.

You can have duplicate data disks as well as duplicate OS disks. I refer to them as "Reserve Drives."

 

[majewski9]

I dont back up. I simply pray and that has always worked.

 

[Vegito]

I clone hdd too, i have them on raid 5 parity strip, i can hot swap a drive and insert duplicates, etc,etc, blah, blah but what if you over wrote an excel sheet that you didn't mean to, then you'll need backup. Backup is for keeping revisions of the data. Same thing with CDRs, you can keep burning new copies of your data so in case you over wrote something.

Originally posted by: corky-g
What I use is a duplicate hard drive - in fact I have three of them. There is no restoration needed - just clone as frequently as your loss of data warrants. No restoration needed. TIme to get back on line is minimal.

Duplicate HDDs are cheaper than tape drives and tapes, and more efficient. Just flip a switch and you are back up.

You can have duplicate data disks as well as duplicate OS disks. I refer to them as "Reserve Drives."

 

[smp]

Thanks people.
That was helpful, now I just have to find a DAT drive for cheap in Canada