Topic: Backup Hardware

[Paperguides]

I have been successfully using Iomega REV drives for backup at some of my customers but recently Iomega have discontinued the drives.    Media (Disks) is still available but for how long?

Can anyone suggest a suitable replacement for REV Drives? e.g. an internal drive that uses small robust removalable media

Tony

[Stefano]

the one and only media to backup to is..

T A P E

buy an used lto drive, a scsi card, some tape cartridge and you'll discover a new world

my 2€c

[philbrearley]

I would use external USB hard Drives.
These are quite cheap nowadays.  Have quite hight capacity. They are reliable.
250GB being common, at least in England. They don't require any hardware to be replaced, and..
The in-built backup routine can schedule an overnight backup to them.
I personnally use Toshiba 250GB

Phil.

[jester]

Tape drives are the best but also quite expensive (on the other hand, the tapes are inexpensive).

Lately RDX drives have been popping up. They are more or less the same thing as REV but with bigger cartridges and more storage capacity. Never used them though, but i guess SME will see them as RRD drives as well.... you might have to add a custom file to have it mount as an usbdisk (see: http://bugs.contribs.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2972) to be able use them as backup device.

[mercyh]

the one and only media to backup to is..

T A P E

How about a friendly discussion on this one?

What happens when the server is blown away in the wind, tape drive and all? You have that tape at home but nothing to access it with.........

[Stefano]

Tape drives are the best but also quite expensive (on the other hand, the tapes are inexpensive).

Lately RDX drives have been popping up. They are more or less the same thing as REV but with bigger cartridges and more storage capacity. Never used them though, but i guess SME will see them as RRD drives as well.... you might have to add a custom file to have it mount as an usbdisk (see: http://bugs.contribs.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2972) to be able use them as backup device.

the main issue is that it is a proprietary tech.. let's say you choose REV in the past.. now Iomega have discontinued, exactly like zip and jaz.. and what about RDX?

when you have to choose the way to backup your data, you should look for something that is a standard..

[Stefano]

How about a friendly discussion on this one?

here I am

What happens when the server is blown away in the wind, tape drive and all? You have that tape at home but nothing to access it with.........

well, you buy another tape drive and restore your data.. that's all..
what about fried hd? or.. "ops, it's doing a strange 'clikety clickety' noise?"

tape cartridge is the best plave where store your data.. it can hit the ground and nothing happen.. try to do it with your hd

on the other side, tape drives are quite expensive.. well, ebay is right here

at home I'm using  adlt scsi 15/30 Gb since.... 2005.. on the same tapes.. not a problem

[mercyh]

well, you buy another tape drive and restore your data.. that's all..

If you are really lucky you may get it overnight... otherwise 3 days.

I think there is a place for tape, but when looking at disaster recovery, you may need something else also if you need to get back in business in less then 72hrs...

[Stefano]

If you are really lucky you may get it overnight... otherwise 3 days.

yes, but how do you get your new server in few hours?

[mercyh]

Ahhh....
and there is the beauty of SME, You restore it on an old workstation until the new server comes in.

It is perhaps a little slower then the old production machine but give me 2 hrs with a "working"  harddrive based backup and I am back in business.  (I have tested it and I know it can be done)

[Stefano]

ok, I know what you mean..

[mercyh]

what about fried hd? or.. "ops, it's doing a strange 'clikety clickety' noise?"

That's why backup is not a "set it up and forget it" operation.

The built in backup will send an email every single day that tells if the operation was successful or not.
 

[mercyh]

Actually, I like to prolong these types of threads a bit as the more times people read the word BACKUP, maybe the higher possibility that they will actually do it.... 

[Stefano]

That's why backup is not a "set it up and forget it" operation.

sure, you are right

The built in backup will send an email every single day that tells if the operation was successful or not.
 

I know, I use it on almost each server (almost, because in some case I use a custom script)

but hds are fragile.. there are mechanical and electrical parts.. a little shock and.. it's gone

so, if you want really backup your data, you use something different.. all IMVHO

[janet]

Dear All

Backup methods depend on the users requirements.

Other than tape consider these.

Very popular with support people these days are the small size (desktop) USB drives, they are relatively robust compared to earlier models ie they are meant to be portable, so do have a high degree of built in shock tolerance eg from poor handling & dropping, although of course it's better not to drop them.

They are also reasonably cost effective, so you would buy 2 at minimum and swap them each day, or eg buy four disks, one disk for each week, and rotate them weekly over a 4 week period.
The exact cycling depends on your backup needs. If the data must be removed off site every night and retained for a week, then you need five USB drives, and cycle them again next week.

Also not yet mentioned in this thread is Affa. You create a offsite backup server using SME, install and configure Affa, see the Contribs wiki article, and you backup daily (or more often) via Internet connection. It runs unattended (which is a great plus), and you can keep many backups eg for as long as a year (depending on disk size), and restore from whichever date you want to, including single file restores done remotely if required.

The initial full backup is best done onsite, due to the long time it will take if there is a large amount of data on the live server, and then move the backup server offsite & reconfigure accordingly. It is fairly easy to setup. Then affa does daily (or more often if specified) incremental backups of data that has changed.

To do a restore in the event of a major server failure, you deliver or have couriered the server from the offsite location, and "rise" Affa so that the backup server becomes the live server.
Alternatively restore from the Affa server backup to a newly built live server via LAN connection.
Obviously obtaining and building a new server hardware takes time, so the Affa "rise" feature is great for quickly getting a production server running again using the same backup server hardware, until more time can be spent obtaining new live system hardware etc. A typical rise takes about 20 minutes as very little data is copied.
If your remote server is located in the same city then it's only an hour or two to get the backup server couriered to the live site, and 20 more minutes to have it up and running.

It's also good to have multiple backups in case something goes wrong with one backup method in the event of a server crash & critical data loss eg onsite USB drive or two, plus offsite affa unattended backup.

For archiving backups, copy data to DVD's or maybe blue rays disks, there is nothing else really suitable that is cheap except tapes (but the tape hardware is more costly to start with).

Your requirements will for sure vary and the justification for implementing different methods will also vary.

Check the Contribs & Howtos Backup category for other methods too.

I also backup to a removeable hard disk in a workstation, and rotate the disks daily.