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Instant (remote) duplicate copy of data

We have a Windows 2000 server. Certain data is vital to us which means we would like to protect it from every possible disaster, instantly... no good just having a RAID system and nightly full backups (tapes kept off site), 'coz if there's a fire or flood during the night (before the backup is complete) then a whole day's work is lost.

We use a dbase database, which can only be backed up when all users are logged out - this happens every evening. However, we would like to go one step further so that each 'write' to the db, is also instantly synchronised/replicated somewhere else. This 'somewhere else' could be in other office in the same building, or even better, offsite i.e. over the internet?

I am after a solution/product which will sort this out for me. We are a small company (<20 users), so cost is a real issue... any thoughts, references (URLs) and suggestions are welcome - many thanks

Lee W, MVP

Other than periodically kicking people off, I'm not sure you'll be able to do this. If you ran an Enterprise database, such as SQL Server, you could replicate the database or do a number of other things periodically. But this is not necessarily a cheap solution.

gpriceee

Hello. Check out the following tool to see if the export feature will work for you. If so, you can import the data elsewhere. As for realtime recovery, as leew states, SQL Enterprise, but you probably don't want to incur the major expense for 20 users.

You can export the data and then "ship" it to another location on a schedule. Do you have a vpn? Perhaps the president might want the data to be shipped to the home residence.

http://www.canadiancontent.net/en/jd/go?Url=http://www.degisy.com/database-workshop.php

huntersvcs

Check out this link:

http://www.savvy.net/detail.asp?category_id=5&article_id=107

They claim even real time synchronization.

jannepm

If your database is for example Access, then you could use a software like Access2MySQL, URL: http://www.data-conversions.net/access-to-mysql-sync-converter.html
Price $49, it supports synchronization and it has scheduler so you can export your Access DB to some MySQL Server on the Internet for example every 15 minutes.

Depending your database you could use similar tools.

kode99

You could try Acronis True Image,

http://www.acronis.com/enterprise/products/ATIESWin/

You could do a full backup nightly then do repeated incremental backups through the day. These can be done to a remote server. This will not get you backups down to the transaction but it could be good for every half hour or so. It all depends on how much data you have to backup and how long it will take to do the incremental.

I would want to test the backups just to be sure the tables are not corrupted. I have seen it work fine with other database files but not dBase specifically.

I do not know the current state of dBase but I would wonder if you could actually set up your clients to write to two locations or create a 'client' that would copy from one database to a remote one. Last time I used dBase it was a single user DOS app.

gpriceee

Hello. Have you narrowed your possibilities?

omb

ASKER

Sorry everyone for not responding for a while - yes, this project was put on hold. However, I am still very interested in the solution, so will review the above suggestions and come back with my comments.

Please do not close this call. Thanks again for everyone's patience.

omb

ASKER

Hello everyone

At the moment I am evaluating / in discussions with the following:

Acronis True Image 8.0 Enterprise Server for Windows
http://www.acronis.com/enterprise/products/ATIESWin/

Double-Take
http://www.sunbelt-software.com/Double-Take.cfm
http://www.nsisoftware.com/pro/doubletake/FAQ/

LiveServ® for Microsoft Exchange
http://www.storactive.com/solutions/liveServ/

Drive SnapShot 1.3
http://www.drivesnapshot.de/en/index.htm

Backup for Workgroups
http://www.backup-for-workgroups.com/open-file-add-on.html

ViceVersa
http://www.tgrmn.com/index.htm?camp=goog_bac

BackupOnDemand Backup Software
http://www.caddais.com/BackupOnDemand.html

Database Workshop
http://www.canadiancontent.net/en/jd/go?Url=http://www.degisy.com/database-workshop.php

IPReplicator®
http://www.linkpro.com/iprep.htm

Network File Monitor Professional
http://www.file-monitor.com/index.html

SavvySafe ES-500
http://www.savvy.net/detail.asp?category_id=5&article_id=119

HP OpenView Storage Virtual Replicator
http://h18006.www1.hp.com/products/sanworks/vr/index.html

HP OpenView Storage Mirroring
http://h18006.www1.hp.com/products/storage/software/sm/index.html

HP OpenView Storage Data Protector
http://h18006.www1.hp.com/products/storage/software/dataprotector/index.html

Learn How Intel is Helping Deliver Affordable Easy to Manage Storage
http://www.intel.com/netcomms/technologies/storage/index.htm

I'll let you know how I get on. Has anyone got experience of any of these products? Any recommendations or total no-goers?

Many thanks

gpriceee

interested

huntersvcs

SavvySafe ES-500 (that I recommended) was one of the ones you were going to check out. Any results back yet? Split points, or have you decided on something else?

gpriceee

I think the points should be split between huntersvcs and me. We both responded as interested and we both offered viable solutions

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