ammounpierre
asked on
Backup Strategy
Hello Gurus,
this is my Layout.
2 servers win2003.
1 Data Server with this specs:
3 hard drives C:& D: and X: and T:
C: has only operating system
D: has a folder called DATA in which lies around 40Gb of Data
(users Profiles...users documents...Applications Data (VFP...etc...)
There is also a folder called SystemState where everynight a backup of the system state is
being created called DailySystemStatebkf
Another file is also created called WeeklySystemState.bkf and run every friday night.
X: is emply and now is just for backing up the D: Drive. (It is done by scheduled task every night.
(It is a normal syncing operation...using a software called backup magic).
T: Drive that is a removal HDD with 300Gb
1 Com Server with this specs:
3 Hard C:& D: and X: and T:
C: has only operating system on it
D: holds the Exchange Server folder (Exchsrvr) and 2 other folders.
1Folder called EXchBack that holds the backup of the Exchange that is done every night
(Daily Exchange.bkf) and another folder EmailsPST that holds PSTs of the exchange
(exmerge runs everynight and creates pst of every user).These 2 folders sum up to 50Gb.
They also contain a folder called SystemState where everynight a backup of the system state is
being created called DailySystemStatebkf
Another file is also created called WeeklySystemState.bkf and run every friday night.
X: is empty and contains a backup of drive D: (the 2 folders ) It is also done by Backup Magic.
It also contains the systemstate copies.
T: Drive that is a removal HDD with 300Gb
So in Brief, everynight I have scheduled tasks that run:
-Create daily systemstate on every server
-Copy around 40 and 50 GB of Data from the D: drive to the X: drive and T: drive of every server
(along with the system State files)
My main concerns are the following.
-Is this a good backup strategy ?
-Shall I cross the data (meaning X: drive of Data Server containing the Data of Com Server
and vice versa ?
-what about the HDD life as to copying every night 50Gb and this non stop every night ?
-If this strategy is not a good one...please help me implement a good one.But please bear in mind that
tapes are not an option. The administration has a very bad experience with Tapes and myself do not
trust them much.
(the T: drives of every Server , I do take them with me everynight out of the office...)
Thank you for helping me out...
PS: Data Server Data consists of the following :
-Application Data DBFs and Such...
-Docs, Xls,mov,wma,avi,ppt....etc
Com Server is mainly for Exchange Data : the store is around 25Gb. but when the backup
ntbackup runs , it creates .bkf files ...and exmerge create pst files...(always being safe...)
Thank you again for your suggestions..
this is my Layout.
2 servers win2003.
1 Data Server with this specs:
3 hard drives C:& D: and X: and T:
C: has only operating system
D: has a folder called DATA in which lies around 40Gb of Data
(users Profiles...users documents...Applications Data (VFP...etc...)
There is also a folder called SystemState where everynight a backup of the system state is
being created called DailySystemStatebkf
Another file is also created called WeeklySystemState.bkf and run every friday night.
X: is emply and now is just for backing up the D: Drive. (It is done by scheduled task every night.
(It is a normal syncing operation...using a software called backup magic).
T: Drive that is a removal HDD with 300Gb
1 Com Server with this specs:
3 Hard C:& D: and X: and T:
C: has only operating system on it
D: holds the Exchange Server folder (Exchsrvr) and 2 other folders.
1Folder called EXchBack that holds the backup of the Exchange that is done every night
(Daily Exchange.bkf) and another folder EmailsPST that holds PSTs of the exchange
(exmerge runs everynight and creates pst of every user).These 2 folders sum up to 50Gb.
They also contain a folder called SystemState where everynight a backup of the system state is
being created called DailySystemStatebkf
Another file is also created called WeeklySystemState.bkf and run every friday night.
X: is empty and contains a backup of drive D: (the 2 folders ) It is also done by Backup Magic.
It also contains the systemstate copies.
T: Drive that is a removal HDD with 300Gb
So in Brief, everynight I have scheduled tasks that run:
-Create daily systemstate on every server
-Copy around 40 and 50 GB of Data from the D: drive to the X: drive and T: drive of every server
(along with the system State files)
My main concerns are the following.
-Is this a good backup strategy ?
-Shall I cross the data (meaning X: drive of Data Server containing the Data of Com Server
and vice versa ?
-what about the HDD life as to copying every night 50Gb and this non stop every night ?
-If this strategy is not a good one...please help me implement a good one.But please bear in mind that
tapes are not an option. The administration has a very bad experience with Tapes and myself do not
trust them much.
(the T: drives of every Server , I do take them with me everynight out of the office...)
Thank you for helping me out...
PS: Data Server Data consists of the following :
-Application Data DBFs and Such...
-Docs, Xls,mov,wma,avi,ppt....etc
Com Server is mainly for Exchange Data : the store is around 25Gb. but when the backup
ntbackup runs , it creates .bkf files ...and exmerge create pst files...(always being safe...)
Thank you again for your suggestions..
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>I personally dislike backing up to a hard drive as i dont beleive they are stable enough, still, we work with what we have and your setup isnt bad at all as far as hard drives go
Word has it that Longhorn will not support tape devices,so disk backup is the way of the future.
Word has it that Longhorn will not support tape devices,so disk backup is the way of the future.
I highly highly doubt that considering that tape backups are still the biggest and most supported backup solution next a complete hotsite :)
Got it from a M$ MVP at a Vista launch party the other day.
I kind of said what?
But he visits the folks up in Redmond a whole lot,so...
I kind of said what?
But he visits the folks up in Redmond a whole lot,so...
I will be massively surprised....I know a few and havent heard anything like that, i will confirm
Longhorn backup utility will not support tape drives,so a 3rd party backup solution will be needed
See:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/community/chats/trans/windowsnet/06_0609_tn_wslong.mspx
Julius S (Expert):
Q: Any chance of tape being a supported backup media - please
A: Our backup program in the OS will not support tape, and it will be up to third party backup programs to do tape support.
See:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/community/chats/trans/windowsnet/06_0609_tn_wslong.mspx
Julius S (Expert):
Q: Any chance of tape being a supported backup media - please
A: Our backup program in the OS will not support tape, and it will be up to third party backup programs to do tape support.
The backup utility got smashed with the new server is they turned around and said "in reality, who actually used NTBackup in a mission critical environment" A good point i think
The server itself will have no issues playing with tape drives, but as shown it natively wont backup to them....very different wording with very different meanings :)
The server itself will have no issues playing with tape drives, but as shown it natively wont backup to them....very different wording with very different meanings :)
NT backup, as I'm sure you are aware of,was BE Lite.
I don't know what happened between M$ and Symantec,but it seems obvious that there is more to this than meets the eye.
A lot of people did use the standalone barebones included in Server 200x and those in the entereprise probably did not.
But let's just say that if only 25% of the people using the server version of M$ to backup use NTbackup,that is still a lot of boxes that will need to move to a 3rd party app.
Makes you wonder if their next aquisistion might be a backup vendor.
Note that M$ leaves open the question of whether or not they will include a bundled version of anti-virus.
I don't know what happened between M$ and Symantec,but it seems obvious that there is more to this than meets the eye.
A lot of people did use the standalone barebones included in Server 200x and those in the entereprise probably did not.
But let's just say that if only 25% of the people using the server version of M$ to backup use NTbackup,that is still a lot of boxes that will need to move to a 3rd party app.
Makes you wonder if their next aquisistion might be a backup vendor.
Note that M$ leaves open the question of whether or not they will include a bundled version of anti-virus.
tis a very good point - i wonder what virus symanted released into Redmond :)
http://www.lwcomputing.com/tips/static/backup.asp
I personally dislike backing up to a hard drive as i dont beleive they are stable enough, still, we work with what we have and your setup isnt bad at all as far as hard drives go