Topic: Backup program selection help for SME 6.0 30 user server

[BobWilliams]

I'm new to SME and am looking for a Backup program for version 6.0 which I just installed on my office test Win XP 4 workstation network. I have a client that will have 30 users using Win XP on this server and I need assistance determining which backup program to select and what type of backup hardware is best. Any help would be appreciated.

Bob...

[Rogue]

Hi Bob,

What is the expected amount of data you need to back up?
Will all the data be on the server, or do you need to back up from each workstation as well?

I am currently using Arkeia's free offering, along with their Java GUI to back up my server and one workstation. Once the concept is proved, I can justify the cost of their full product.

[BobWilliams]

Thanks for the reply Rogue. I am planning for 2 GB per user data on the server. I will backup client data from their XP PC's to the server. The server will have about 10GB of i-bay shared data to backup. My server drives will be Raid-1 120GB drives and I am thinking of a external 120 GB USB drive for server backup. I have to figure out how to get USB working on the server first right after I figure out how to get rid if those silly Emoticons on this Reply screen message body option.

Bob...

[Rogue]

If you can mount the USB drive, it should be fairly simple to use 'tar' to archive the selected folders to that mount point.

Otherwise I would recommend looking at a large capacity DLT drive. This is natively supported by the tape backup program that is included on the server, and you can customize the directories it backs up.

[BobWilliams]

Rogue. I don't think my client can handle the DLT backups by themselves. I am remote from them and I need something idiot proof. I also just found out that using raid-1 on a PC with only a 400Mhz processor and two WD 16GB drives is way too slow writing files to be used in a production environment. Reads just fine but so slow writing. I need a Raid-1 hardware card to handle the data writing chore.

Bob...

[pietdejong]

Hi
I am using backup2ws. I have customized it for my own requireements
I have three backup running all which will backup all data overnight to a removable drive on an XP box on the network.

1. Daily I run a Differential, which will just backup all the changed files for that day. ( TAR )
2. Weekly I run a Disaster Recovery backup (TAR) which will backup all system files
3. Weekly I rsync the /home directory, this does not preserve permissions, but its much faster then tar.

This works pretty well, I backup approx 20 Gb of data on /home

[BobWilliams]

Thanks pietdejong for the information.
I'm going to use SME 6 Software Raid-1 for redundancy and an external removable USB Hard drive for data backups.

Bob...