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Home > Archive > Backup Software > June 2004 > Is tape backup still necessary in this day and age?
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Is tape backup still necessary in this day and age?
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| Main thing that needs backup is a 700 meg folder of documents in a lawyers
office. Been dealing with backup exec and a tape drive and its quirks for
close to a year now and its finally time for their office t get a new
server.
I'd love to kiss both B-exec and the tapes goodbye. cryptic errors weird
stuff that doesnt point to anything specific (google searches of the error
at the time had references to different solutions) kinda comes and
goes...(no, right now i don't have the specific error messages).
At any rate, wouldn't a raid 1 array that mirrors the drive - perhaps
combined with a dvd burner (or perhaps an external hard drive) - be just as
effective (and a lot easier) than dealing with quirky tapes and their
software?
This office has no techies, I'm just the guy they call to apply duct tape
whenever a crisis looms its head. I'd like a solution that is as painless
for them as possible.
Please discuss and advise
Chuck
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| www.JimWilliamson.net 2004-06-10, 5:46 pm |
| "Chuck" <cmooney@npspampleezutmem.edu> wrote:
>Main thing that needs backup is a 700 meg folder of documents in a lawyers
>office. Been dealing with backup exec and a tape drive and its quirks for
>close to a year now and its finally time for their office t get a new
>server.
>
>I'd love to kiss both B-exec and the tapes goodbye. cryptic errors weird
>stuff that doesnt point to anything specific (google searches of the error
>at the time had references to different solutions) kinda comes and
>goes...(no, right now i don't have the specific error messages).
>
>
>At any rate, wouldn't a raid 1 array that mirrors the drive - perhaps
>combined with a dvd burner (or perhaps an external hard drive) - be just as
>effective (and a lot easier) than dealing with quirky tapes and their
>software?
>
>This office has no techies, I'm just the guy they call to apply duct tape
>whenever a crisis looms its head. I'd like a solution that is as painless
>for them as possible.
>
>Please discuss and advise
>
>Chuck
A RAID solution helps to keep the system up during a 'failed hard drive
NOW' issue.
Backing up, nightly, to a different, online, hard drive is handy for quick
restores and is also inexpensive, relatively fast and rather painless -
it's a good second backup.
Offline backups are still needed (what if the building burns) and if your
backup would fit onto a DVD-R then go for it. How often an offsite backup
is performed is up to the client. Perhaps weekly?? (with the onsites
happening each night). 52 DVD-R's would be needed per year (factor that
media cost in).
If the desire to go back in time (ala select a DVD-R for what week you wish
to work with) is NOT a requirement then an external, take-home (tho more
bulky for that secretary / backup person to carry [onsite fireproof safes
don't cut it - they are only fire resistant] hard drive could work. You
won't be able to fit as many backups onto it. Perhaps consider two or
three of them and rotate between them.
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| Chuck,
Have Relative Rev Backup take incremental snapshots to some hard disk. It
has a bult in backup generation manager that discards seamlessly of
snapshots and keep only selected ones. This way, in no time, you'll be able
to recover files taken weeks and months back, and with minimal space
consumed (my guess is some 1-2gigs for a year worth of snapshots).
You should also backup to some removable media, for this purpose you can
use, say 5 DVD RW, to take weekly backups. Once again you can use RRB to
schedule and carry out these backups.
Bob
http://www.datamills.com
"Chuck" <cmooney@npspampleezutmem.edu> wrote in message
news:10cgc9k4m6rluce@news.supernews.com...
> Main thing that needs backup is a 700 meg folder of documents in a lawyers
> office. Been dealing with backup exec and a tape drive and its quirks for
> close to a year now and its finally time for their office t get a new
> server.
>
> I'd love to kiss both B-exec and the tapes goodbye. cryptic errors weird
> stuff that doesnt point to anything specific (google searches of the error
> at the time had references to different solutions) kinda comes and
> goes...(no, right now i don't have the specific error messages).
>
>
> At any rate, wouldn't a raid 1 array that mirrors the drive - perhaps
> combined with a dvd burner (or perhaps an external hard drive) - be just
as
> effective (and a lot easier) than dealing with quirky tapes and their
> software?
>
> This office has no techies, I'm just the guy they call to apply duct tape
> whenever a crisis looms its head. I'd like a solution that is as painless
> for them as possible.
>
> Please discuss and advise
>
> Chuck
>
>
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