I think Matt had some really good advice in terms of figuring out what your needs are prior to coming up with a back plan. As I'm fond of pointing out, backups are worthless, but restores are worth their weight in <insert precious metal here>. It's very important that you know what you need, what you want, and the difference between them. That's to help guage the sticker shock when you have to get it all purchased and configured etc.
As Susan points out, tapes might not be enough for you whereas it is for others.
Figure out your requirements prior to your strategy and you'll get a much better system in place.
Al
On 7/24/06, Susan Bradley, CPA aka Ebitz - SBS Rocks [MVP] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Why tapes?
(Just wondering as we've found tapes haven't kept up with drive sizes
and need for speed during a backup window)
NAS, SAN, rotation of harddrives... etc...etc..
Matt Hargraves wrote:
> What is your plan? Do you want speed in restoration or backup? Do
> you have a 24-hour facility or is it an 8-hour facility? Do you have
> a tape changer or a single tape unit (changing tapes daily)?
>
> If you have an 8-hour facility and the server is close to you, then
> weekend fulls and differentials is fine. If you have a 24-hour
> facility, then weekend full and incrementals might be the way to go.
> If you want to be able to have quick full system restores, then daily
> full backups is the best, but if you have a 24-hour facility then it's
> not practical and you're better off going with differentials
> throughout the week (2-tape restore).
>
> I generally recommend more tapes, though. Something more like 20
> daily tapes and 5 weekly tapes so that you can always go back at least
> a month. You don't always realize that something needs to be restored
> immediately and being able to go back 3-4 weeks without going to the
> previous month's 'master' backup tape is always nice. Tapes don't
> cost *that* much and if going back 3 weeks can save an engineer 30
> hours of work on a CAD drawing, then it's a good plan. But if you can
> only go back 1 and a half or 4 weeks back... you just lost 30 hours
> worth of work at around $75-100 per hour, that's between $2250 and 3k
> saved by one restoration.
>
>
> On 7/23/06, *Quatro Info* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>> wrote:
>
> Hi all,
>
>
> I am interested in your stories about back up strategies /
> procedures with all advantages and disadvantages involved.
>
>
> For example:
>
> Set up
>
> -Weekends full backups.... 2 tapes
> -Working days incremental....5 tapes
> -monthly full backups...12 tapes...1 each month.
>
>
> Which strategy is most efficient and reliable?
> When do you use full, copy, differential, incremental or daily?
> (Considering windows backup utility)
> Which software do you use?
>
>
> How often do you test a restore? (a few files)
> How often do you perform a full restore?
> If exchange or sql server is involved. For example with veritas
> remote agents. How often do you perform a restore on exchange
> databases / sql server databases?
>
>
>
> Do you keep an exact copy of the backup hardware involved on a
> external location in case of fire/ theft?
>
>
> All info is very appreciated.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Jorre
>
>
>
>
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