[ILUG] Backup - pick your brains

[Gary Pigott]

Hi Paschal,

I've *very* biased (I work for Central Databank, and we do online 
backup), but tapes snap, and a DVD only holds 4GB/disk. Disk is nice and 
cheap, and robust, as long as you don't move it around a lot. If offsite 
storage is a requirement for you then you're looking at moving 
fragile/low capacity DVD/tape and paying someone to transport and store 
it for you, or going with an online method.... If costs are tight and 
you don't mind getting your hands dirty, stick a server somewhere and 
get busy with rsync (or rdiff-backup) over ssh. There's even a Win32 
rsync version around (http://itefix.no/cwrsync/) for your windows boxes. 
I personally *hate* Amanda, (but that's another story).

If you've got the budget to do it properly, there are services out there 
(like ours) that'll do incremental delta based backups with common file 
elimination, hot database & mail server backups, and all the other 
sparkly bits, which actually make an online backup a practical 
replacement to tapes). I can't speak for the competition, but we've got 
1TB+ clients backing up nightly over their existing IP lines. Ours 
supports a local cache, so you can keep the latest backup on a local 
NAS/SAN for fast restores. If your building burns down, it's not too 
hard for us to dump your (encrypted) backup onto a NAS at the datacentre 
and courier it across town.

Gary

Paschal Nee wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm looking at a backup solutions for the office (mix of Windows
> desktops/laptops and Linux boxes).  Amanda is the backup solution I'm
> aware of from days gone by.  Is anybody on list using Amanda in anger
> in a similar setup?  Anything I should be aware of?
>
> Anything else I should be looking at?  Not averse to putting my hand
> in my pocket if  there's something out there that would make my life a
> lot easier (we also had ArcServe at one point).  If you're
> particularly proud of how you manage backups, please do share.
>
> On the backed what are people using for storage - tape, DVD, removable
> disk, online, (any thing else?).  Online appeals to me (one less thing
> to think about) but the amount of data going over the net would worry
> me (esp in the case where we wanted to do a restore).
>
> And finally - anybody using these zmanda.com for support..  I know the
> idea of paying somebody for support would be anathema for most of you
> guys but until we get a full time sysadmin it's an option I might
> consider (depending on how easy the whole Amanda thing is).
>
> Thanks,
> Paschal.