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Date: | Mon, 12 Mar 2001 14:24:59 -0500 |
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Fred,
We use Backup Exec software (Veritas) in both the NT and NetWare varieties. We have three different tape drives (all DAT): One (8 gb) on our GroupWise mail server (with Open File Manager) and one (24 gb) on a Windows 2000 server that contains our student records and library databases. The third one (40 gb) runs on an NT4 server and backs up everything else (the NT server itself and 7 Netware servers). It takes a fair amount of attention to keep everything running right and being sure you really have gotten a reliable backup. We do full backups on Friday nights and differentials the rest of the week.
DAT drives have been industry standard for quite sometime. I think the big boys have moved to DLT however. Right now, I think 40 gb is the max for a single tape using a DAT drive. And that's really only 20 native, but they would have you believe you can achieve a 2:1 compression ratio. That doesn't apply to many of my NetWare servers because they're already compressing little-used files during a daily maintenance. To go to 80 gb unattended backup you either have to move to DLT technology which will get very pricey: around $4000. for an 80gb HP DLT drive or, another alternative is to use a DAT autoloader which can hold multiple 40 gb tapes or, less expensive, multiple (6) 24 gb tapes (about $2000.).
Gregg Martin's solution may be an answer since ADR is rather inexpensive. I had heard that they weren't reliable enough for enterprise-level servers, but that may have changed (or never been true). Seems worth looking into.
Big hard drives have become alluring (i.e. cheap) but I haven't heard good things about that solution. And it sounds like Gregg has tried it and found it lacking. They would be particularly inappropriate if you need to keep several weeks of backups or if you need to (and you do) keep a back up off site.
Back to software: Some people are using products like Retrospect which I believe are sort of an imaging solution. I think they are pretty fast getting a back- up made but not so convenient for restoring individual files later on. (Is that true, Gregg?)
Vince
Vince Rossano
District Technology Coordinator
Montpelier Public Schools
58 Barre Street
Montpelier, VT 05602
Voice: (802) 229-5355
Fax: (802) 223-6146
Email: [log in to unmask]
>>> [log in to unmask] 03/12/01 05:46AM >>>
I need to purchase a good high capacity backup system (80GB). I am
looking for some feedback as to recommendations on software, hardware,
medium to use for backup, etc.
I would like to know what others have found to be a good workable,
unattended system with potential for expansion.
Thanks for your input.
Fred Wadlington, Systems Administrator
Milton Town School District
(802) 893-3215 x114
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