Server Backup Ideas - Overclock.net

SniperXX · 09-29-09

Ok my company I work for has alot of servers at a datacenter.

Due to recent hd problems with a server we are redoing our backup plan. The previous setup was done by my boss but it didn't perform to what we wanted.

What kind of options would we have for backing up terabytes of data off multiple servers besides tape? To give an idea most servers have 1-2TB of data on them.

max302 · 09-29-09

Hard drives?

Being more precise might allow us to give you some ideas. Do you need raid? Occasional manual backups? You're backing up the entire servers? As in the data on them, or OS + data?

Turnoz · 09-29-09

Quote:

Originally Posted by SniperXX

Ok my company I work for has alot of servers at a datacenter.

Due to recent hd problems with a server we are redoing our backup plan. The previous setup was done by my boss but it didn't perform to what we wanted.

What kind of options would we have for backing up terabytes of data off multiple servers besides tape? To give an idea most servers have 1-2TB of data on them.

If you are willing to invest some money and time, the best solution is an offsite SAN. But that's pretty expensive. And also quite demanding on the net connection.

parityboy · 09-29-09

Yeah an off-site SAN would be ideal, but "ideal" usually equals "expensive".

@OP

For those sized data sets, tape is still probably your best bet, especially since you can move the tapes into a safe, or off-site. Look at tape library systems/software such as IBM's Tivoli. It's certainly pricey, but it works.

Alternatively, you could co-locate a back up server at a data centre and spend some cash on a decent Internet up-link. The first full backup would be slow, obviously, but after that, it'd only be differential backups.

You *might* be able to

a) do a full backup to tape

b) "restore" that tape back up to the co-located server

c) point your backup software at the co-located server and tell it to do differential backups from that point onwards. That should minimise your traffic needs.

SniperXX · 09-29-09

Quote:

Originally Posted by max302

Hard drives?

Being more precise might allow us to give you some ideas. Do you need raid? Occasional manual backups? You're backing up the entire servers? As in the data on them, or OS + data?

We are doing data only. Current servers run raid 5 but recently one went down due to a backplane issue and the perc card kicked out 2 drives!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Turnoz

If you are willing to invest some money and time, the best solution is an offsite SAN. But that's pretty expensive. And also quite demanding on the net connection.

Well the only other offsite would be another datacenter, not really an option unless we go back to LA which we didnt care for, or backups at the office (all we have available is 3mpbs crappy dsl).

Quote:

Originally Posted by parityboy

Yeah an off-site SAN would be ideal, but "ideal" usually equals "expensive".

@OP

For those sized data sets, tape is still probably your best bet, especially since you can move the tapes into a safe, or off-site. Look at tape library systems/software such as IBM's Tivoli. It's certainly pricey, but it works.

Alternatively, you could co-locate a back up server at a data centre and spend some cash on a decent Internet up-link. The first full backup would be slow, obviously, but after that, it'd only be differential backups.

You *might* be able to

a) do a full backup to tape

b) "restore" that tape back up to the co-located server

c) point your backup software at the co-located server and tell it to do differential backups from that point onwards. That should minimise your traffic needs.

I'll have to check out that Tivoli. I havent messed with tapes in 4 years when I was at my old IT job.

Manyak · 09-29-09

I think the solution with the best cost/benefit ratio would be a combination of having a dedicated backup server and tape backups you take offsite.

For the dedicated backup server, if you can't afford sparing bandwidth on the main network give it a separate one with just the other servers (either through a VLAN if you've got the spare ports or with a separate switch).

Then for tape backups, alternate between two or three sets of tapes so that one of them is always offsite even during backups.

BLinux · 10-09-09

hold on there buddy... let's start with your requirements?

how many servers? how much data per server? what is your required recovery window/time? what is your backup window/time? what is your desired backup frequency for fulls and incrementals? what is your data retention policy? do you require off-site storage for disaster recovery? what does your disaster recovery plan require? what is the ballpark figure for the budget on hardware, software, labor?

when you answer those questions, the technical details start making sense. For example, i have one customer who requires a maximum recovery time of 6 hours on a maximum of 3.5TB of data. That means I need a system that can restore about 600GB of data per hour, which is 10GB/min, which is about 171MBytes/sec. this tells me that in a bare metal recovery scenario, I can't accomplish this over a 1Gbps network (which is about 120MB/sec), and I need a I/O subsystem that can sustain about 200MB/sec writes on the bare metal server, and 200MB/sec reads on the backup I/O subsystem. Once you know these numbers, then you start looking for hardware solutions that can accomplish this. Then you start looking at software solutions, etc. This is just a back of the envelope analysis of a bare metal recovery scenario, but you'll need to look into the backup scenarios, single file system recovery scenarios, disaster recovery scenarios, etc.

Start by understanding the requirements.... otherwise, later down the road you'll realize all over again that you don't have the backup solution you need.

DuckieHo · 10-09-09

Quote:

Originally Posted by SniperXX

Well the only other offsite would be another datacenter, not really an option unless we go back to LA which we didnt care for, or backups at the office (all we have available is 3mpbs crappy dsl).

Use a really long CAT6 cable.

WBAGAM · 10-12-09

commvault software. We run it on our servers here in the data centers I support. Offsite tape backups are going to be a definite need.

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Server Backup Ideas

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