Cartridge hard drive backup system

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by ManicD, Jan 28, 2008.

  1. ManicD

    ManicD Byte Poster

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    Ok, so the new job i started at the beginning of the month is going well.

    the boss is looking into replacing the current backup system (5 x 200GB tapes changed daily) to something more reliable.

    My first thoughts would be 1 TB cartridge hard drives, a single drive to change each day, speedy recovery times, ease of use, longer lasting etc etc.

    another option would be external usb hard drives.

    another thought is off site storage on a separate server, possibly in association with another company.


    Does anyone know of the kinda prices to implement such solutions?
    or any good deals going at the mo?
     
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  2. hbroomhall

    hbroomhall Petabyte Poster Gold Member

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    The first question is - why isn't the current system 'reliable'?

    A good system is very reliable - so I suspect that someone has cut corners and used something like Travan?

    What is the budget for such a system?

    Harry.
     
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  3. dales

    dales Terabyte Poster

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    First thing I would do is dump the USB idea, its wayyyyyyyyy to slow for backing up with. for example using ntbackup I got asked to copy 250gigs of data to a usb2 external drive. it took approx a day and a half (36 hours)for the data to copy. why dont you just buy in some more tapes if the media is gettingt unreliable. do you hold your weekly backups offsite? what do you do with the daily ones do you have a fireproof safe you keep them in?
     
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  4. Modey

    Modey Terabyte Poster

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    Yeah I also wondered why you are finding the 200GB tapes unreliable? We use a Dell Powervault server here that has 2 Ultrium2 drives. 200GB Native / 400GB Compressed (yeah right :) ).

    Each one is connected to a separate server and we use Symantec backup exec 10 on each one. We also have a few of our smaller servers scheduled to backup via NTbackup across the network to the main backup servers. We do a daily backup on each of the main servers, and have 5 Friday tapes, so we can go up to a month back with our backups. On one of them we also take out the last backup of the month every month, so we can go back even further (legal requirement).

    We store all the tapes in a specialist data safe which we have been assured is nuke proof. They tested it at Chernobyl. :)

    It works for us so far anyway.
     
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  5. Sparky
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    Sparky Zettabyte Poster Moderator

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    Whats the problem with the current backup? Is it failing each night?
     
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  6. ManicD

    ManicD Byte Poster

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    currently have issues with the tape drive sometimes they work other times they dont, they have i mind of their own, they need re-newing at least but if we are gonna do that we want to look at other easier options. currently we have to track and change 5 tapes a day, then try to identify which tape has the backup when we want to restore.
    Working for a school, its normally only restoring a childs work thats gone missing, and the whole process just seems o take forever.

    a single unit to swap each day would be far easier.

    Also would like something more durable and hopefully faster access


    budget is low but avalible... just want to see whats on the market
     
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  7. Modey

    Modey Terabyte Poster

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    Shadow copy for the win \o/. Most of the time we don't need to go to our tape backups.
     
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  8. Sparky
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    Sparky Zettabyte Poster Moderator

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    What he said 8)
     
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  9. ManicD

    ManicD Byte Poster

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    ok, i'm a bit rusty on shadow copies, how would i restore a single file or folder with it?
     
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  10. ManicD

    ManicD Byte Poster

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    Ok, scrap that last comment, i been playing and refreashed my memory, my onlly issue, is when you reach the size limit you set for the shadow copies, it seems to delete ALL the previous copies, any way to ensure that it just writes over from the oldest shadow?
     
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  11. ManicD

    ManicD Byte Poster

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    i have read if you dont reach the size limit by the 64th copy, it starts writing over the oldest.

    but it still seems to delete all if i reach the size limit BEFORE the 64th copy
     
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  12. Sparky
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    If you allow the amount of disk space for shadow copy to be 'no limit' then that should sort that problem mate. 8)
     
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  13. Rover977

    Rover977 Byte Poster

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    Though obviously not suited for regular archival purposes, an external hi-speed USB hard drive can be useful for backups in some cases. Recently I purchased one of these, a 500GB Maxtor Personal Storage 3200 from PC World for £110, and on testing it obtained a data transfer rate of about 20MB/sec and upwards, which is about 1.2GB per minute, ie 72GB per hour, which is not bad considering the price. I also tested my internal 500GB PATA Hitachi hard drive in an external USB enclosure, and got a similar data transfer rate.

    A typical external 200/400GB Ultra SCSI Ultrium 2 tape drive on the market, such as this :-

    http://www.backupworks.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=457

    gives about 3.5 times this speed, but costs over $3000, so depending on what the needs of your employer/client are, an external USB drive may be of some use. On Amazon there is a 1TB WD external USB drive for £147 :-

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Western-Digital-Essential-External-Drive/dp/B000W9RNOA/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=gateway&qid=1201828202&sr=8-1
     
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  14. Modey

    Modey Terabyte Poster

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    Ultrium2 is expensive yes, but seems very fast and reliable so far.
     
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