Topic: Backup on DRX, Govault or Odyssey

[cyberjuls2]

Hi all,

Makes a long time i'm searching a cool, simple affordable solution for my backing up. Seems i founded what i want. Let me sum you up what were my needs.

1- I need to backup around 80-120Gb of data stored on my sme server
2- this must be done on a removable item so that i can take a least one on an other site everyday
3- integrated to the server ( usb external drives are not that smart and intented for daily manipulations)
4- easy backup software

So i run the web all day long and finally found that those three technologies were maybe what would fit the best my needs. Tape drives are horribly expensives when it comes to 80-120Go solutions.
Those three solutions offers in fact embeded 2.5" hard drive in a cartdridge. Cost per cartridge is effectivly high compared to tape, but acquisition price is really really lower than than tape drive.
You get a tandberg drx (internal SATA II connexion) including 120GB cartdrige for 261€ today.

This last one is compatible with CentOS Linux Version 4.2, kernel version 2.6.9. So my question is...
Is it possible to run this stuff on sme or not? Is it possible to use the standard tape system. Or is there any other options?

[byte]

Moved to contribs section as it is more appropriate here.

[dmay]

The Tandberg RDX is just one vendors packaging of an internal removable SATA hard drive or external USB/removable SATA enclosure. For the internal drive, follow the existing HowTo guides for adding an additional internal hard drive. For the USB external drive, follow the existing HowTo guides for adding a USB hard drive. Various backup contribs exist that will backup to attached hard drives.

Darrell

[cyberjuls2]

Ok thanks darrell,

I'm going to buy one of those anyway. For now my choice is going on the rdx format as cartridge are not propietary to one company. even if i can't make it work on my sme i could always backup through one windows workstation. So if everything is fine, i'll make a howto on this one because i've searched since long time ago a sure and easy backup solution. Tape are so expensive, now i get a 120Gb solution including 3 120 GB tapes(disks) for 546€ (excluding taxes) on bechtle.fr.
Seems to be what i was searching for since long time now. If anyone has allready tested those stuff, feedback will be nice. I'll do it when i'll get this thing in my hands.

Julien.

[cyberjuls2]

just found this other option from icy dock.

case with dock   : http://www.lesnumeriques.com/article-351-2264-254.html
case alone         : http://www.materiel.net/ctl/Boitiers_externes/31065-IB_266STUS_B.html

It's the same (hardware) stuff as drx exept it's cheaper (because selfmade), but the total cost for 120GB case + hard drive (samsung spinpointM5S) is around 75€ (excluding taxes). That's way cheaper than the 142€ for a 120Gb DRX cartridge.
One important stuff is that when out it can be connected by usb cable to an other computer (laptop or anything else), and i love to get an eye on backup to go seing if everything is in place.
As i get most of the rdx advantages by using those case (removable, protected, evolutive), i will buy one of thoses for testing before moving to RDX wich still have i think a better schock resitance and maybe a greater lifetime.

c ya later
Julien

ps: more info there for english people : http://www.ocia.net/reviews/icybox

[erico]

I've been running USB 2.0 connected GoVaults at several of my clients with good results. The GoVault comes with de-duplication software that is easy to set up and requires little maintenance other than periodically making sure the backup jobs run. Once configured, you just swap cartridges on your own schedule and the software does the rest. Sounds like you would want to run it on a Windows platform (XP, Vista, Windows 2003), and map a drive to your SME server. The first backup would be time consuming, but after that the backup window would grow MUCH smaller, since you are only backing up the changes taking place *within* each file, not the entire file each time the file changes.

The deduplication allows you to store many months of backups on a single cartridge. With the data compression that also is a part of the software, I've been backing up 60 GB data to an 80 GB cartridge for months now. Though maybe I should have started with a 120 GB cartridge.

Also, you can get less expensive cartridges for the GoVault at www.cartbak.com. Just make sure to choose a cartridge for the GoVault.

Eric

[dmay]

Be careful!!! If you are not using an SME scripted backup solution you most likely will not be able to fully recover. Depending on what you are doing, you most likely are not backing up Linux rights and ownership information, your mySQL databases, user e-mail and key configuration files. Probably just i-bay data only, which will not restore a server to full functionality.

Have you tested your GoVault de-duplication software by performing a bare metal Disaster Recovery scenario?

Darrell

[cyberjuls2]

Hi darrell,

Maybe i've not been clear enough, my wish is to get a full backup of my sme server and for this i'll use those 2.5" HD case mounted inside sme server and using your dar2 system. Thus the HD will be ext3 formated of course.
I fear a lot not being able to see my files (actually projects Ibay) not as on windows. That's stupid but in case there is a problem i want to be able to get a 5 minutes access to my data. For this, having a windows backup (just of the concerned ibays) is a good solution. I can just plug one harddrive that is dedicated to this because the last system i was speaking about is not that expensive. Later i can then concentrate myself on getting back the server working.
I'm an architect, i don't really use extensive mysql on the server and actually i'm splitting the original server in two. one intended for local lan and the other on the dmz for web, mail and webshare services.

So as you seem to be "aware" of backup  solutions do you think those icybox are something that could work or may i should go for a drx or govault system? For 440€ i got four 160GB 2.5" HD, four case and two rack. Thus i can distribute HD like this :
3 SME HD for daily backup running an sme script solution with off site capability due to the removable system for the hd.
1 Windows HD to backup important Ibay that let me access to my data directly on  my laptop or my workstations. (yeah i know it's a redondant solution, but as i'm not really sure of my linux shell capacities it help me to better sleep).

Well nothing more to say.
Julien.

PS: By the way thanks darrell for webshare, that a really cool contrib for sme. It let my clients having easy access to an xchange system. I will open soon an other thread on webshare because i want to customize it a little.

[dmay]

I fear a lot not being able to see my files (actually projects Ibay) not as on windows.

If you are using smeserver-dar2, you can use the included mc plugin to get access to see your files. When you install an rpm, you can peak under the hood to see what was installed by issuing as example:

# rpm -ql smeserver-dar2

Then take a look at:

# cat /opt/dar2-mc/README

Finally run:

/etc/e-smith/events/actions/dar2-mc

Darrell

[cyberjuls2]

Thanks darell,


by the way do you think mobile 2.5" HD are able to do the job? If anyone as an opinion on this, i'm open to all comment.