DDT! (Disk --> Disk --> Tape)

osaddict

Ok, not the synthetic pesticide... but disk to disk to tape backup.

As you probably know from some of my posts we have been having problems with our backup, and this has caused us to review the process.

Our new strategy (in a nutshell) will be server -> NAS -> Tape...

Using NTBackup as part of sbs2003 is fine for server -> NAS or server -> Tape, but going from server to nas to tape seems trickier.

I am aware you can get backup exce but I wondered what other (decent) alternatives there were? (I've used a few bits of backup software in the past, some OK some really rubbish!)

kryyst

Symantec Backup Exec and Tivoli are to high end programs. Tivoli is definitely overkill for what you are doing since it's just for backing up your NAS. If your nas is running windows then there is no reason you can't use the built in windows function to back it up to tape, just schedule it for a time when the server is relatively inactive. It's just a simple backup your doing you don't need anything fancy.

osaddict

I know nothing about NAS drives - Today is the first bit of research I have done in to them to be totally honest.

I thought the NAS would be running some pretty basic OS just like a stripped down version of explorer or something.

In which case I cant really see how it could 1. have backup software built in and 2. be able to see a tape drive and write to the tape drive?!

One thing has occurred to me though, if we were to use something like Backup Exec - would it backup the actual files and effectively create a copy of them or would it create a backup file like ntbackup does? - If it did the former it would be quicker to recover files, but I guess this is a trivial point, especially if I enable shadow copy.

As a newbie to NAS drives I still struggle to see how it could work.

kryyst

NAS just means network attached storage. So what OS it runs really just depends on what the box is, a basic one will usually be some linux version an advanced one could be a windows machine. Some have built in backup software some don't really depends on what you buy.

But I'm getting the picture now your just looking at a basic 'dumb' drop in NAS. So you'll need a network backup solution that can backup off one device and store it on another. NTbackup can do that as long as the machine that's running the backup can see the files on the NAS and the tape drive you are planning on using.

You'll need to do some clever configurations though to get it to work correctly with multiple tapes. Check out this artical

osaddict

Thanks for the link kryyst.

I have a question - something like Backup Exec - when backing up to a HDD does it just create a 'backup file' like ntbackup or does it create a copy of the actual files and put them in one folder like BACKUP3103082211 or something?

kryyst

I honestly don't know the answer to that question as I've never used Backup Exec to backup to harddrive. But my gut tells me it'll create a backupfile that is a large compressed image of what your backing up.

I believe it does this because it protects that file so that you need backup exec to retrieve the backup. One part security, one part Backup Exec protecting their investment.