Re: Backup Strategy
From: ireland (Aaronireland_at_discussions.microsoft.com)
Date: 03/10/05
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Date: Thu, 10 Mar 2005 07:59:03 -0800
Hi Kevin,
Thank you very much for taking the time to advise me. I have disscussed some
of the senarios we talked about early in this tread and my manager said I am
over kill on the backups. He was very impressed at the information I got from
yourself.
So here it goes. I will use norton ghost to take images of the two servers.
the images will be reproduced each time a system change occurs. Full data
backups took off site monthly. the data backups will be increment daily to
local disk and weekly burned to dvd disk with some sort of rotation (i have
alot of DVD disk with an very good external dvd-rw).
Does this seem like it could work.
Thanks again (Microsoft Rocks)
Aaron
"Kevin Rains" wrote:
> In the case of a physical disaster (fire, theft, etc.) you can't help but
> lose data back to the point in time of the latest offsite storage.
> Spreading your data onto different physical devices around the office can
> possibly help this (i.e. your servers are stolen but the thief didn't steal
> your external HDD that was located in another room), but physical
> destruction of the entire office removes even that benefit. Major physical
> disaster aside, storing incremental data on a device physically separate
> from your server(s) (back to the point in time of a good offline image as
> previously mentioned) will usually prevent most if not all data loss. The
> downside is that it may take a while to get everything running again in the
> case of a disaster (but you will have the data).
>
> Personally I wouldn't physically move hard drives around more than once a
> week. I normally wouldn't even move them around more than once a month, but
> sometimes circumstances dictate what you must do. If I was going to carry
> HDD around all of the time I might be tempted to buy 4 of them: one to store
> offline images (that stays offsite), and three to rotate offsite everyday
> (or every other day, etc.) that contain (daily) online images. You can
> probably buy 4 large external HDD for the price of one quality tape drive.
>
> Thanks,
> Kevin
>
> "Aaron (ireland)" <Aaronireland@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:49235A79-1D54-44BF-8BE6-53A0E0EBD50A@microsoft.com...
> > Hi Kevin,
> >
> > Thanks for the reply. In a nut shell I am thinking of buying two external
> > HDD 250gb-300gb) but I can not get a clear picture of how to rotate the
> > backups to insure no data lose. I think the ghost image of the two servers
> > are a great Idea. Then I can do incremental backups on the data. But how
> to
> > rotate them is my problem so I never losse info.
> >
> > Thanks again
> >
> > "Kevin Rains" wrote:
> >
> > > Well, that seems to be a tricky situation. The easiest, but most
> expensive,
> > > solution is to buy two large capacity tape drives so that you could do a
> > > full backup of each server on its own tape every day. I don't think you
> > > want to do that or you probably wouldn't have posted the question in the
> > > first place. In the end, any backup scenario comes down to risk
> assessment
> > > and risk management -- how much data are you willing to lose and/or how
> much
> > > effort are you willing to expend to put a "broken" system back together
> > > again. It is always best to make full backups to be taken offsite
> everyday,
> > > but sometimes logistics or expense make this impractical. I like
> external
> > > HDD for backup purposes, but I don't think they are built for the abuse
> they
> > > take being carried offsite every day. The physical abuse can obviously
> be
> > > reduced by purchasing more drives such that they are carried offsite
> less
> > > often. Without knowing all of the specifics about your situation, it's
> hard
> > > to make a specific recommendation. There are probably a hundred
> different
> > > things you could do, but here's one option:
> > > Use Ghost (or something similar) to create offline images of both
> servers
> > > and place them on a large external HDD. Keep this drive offsite.
> > > Periodically (once a month for instance) reproduce these images, or
> anytime
> > > you have a significant configuration change.
> > > Use your current tapes to perform a daily backup of all data (company
> > > folder, user folders, exchange, etc.). These tapes can be taken offsite
> if
> > > needed. If possible, it would be good to archive daily tapes back to
> the
> > > point in time of the latest server HD images. If you don't have this
> many
> > > tapes, you could purchase an additional HDD (to leave permanently
> onsite) to
> > > store daily incremental backups. You can probably store at least 30
> days
> > > worth of daily incremental data on a large HDD (especially if your daily
> > > data doesn't include your entire exchange store). Without exchange, you
> may
> > > even be able to store 60 days worth of incremental data.
> > >
> > > HTH,
> > > Kevin
> > >
> > > "Aaron (ireland)" <Aaronireland@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in
> message
> > > news:2FE576DC-A7D4-46BC-B89B-9234C9E515E3@microsoft.com...
> > > > Hi Lads,
> > > >
> > > > How are you? Well I hope. Anyways I want to get this backup strategy
> out
> > > of
> > > > the way. I think at this stage I have read everything on backups. But
> I
> > > can't
> > > > find anything that I would like to do. One of my backups are 22gb this
> is
> > > the
> > > > largest one.The tapes I have are 20gb. I am thinking of buying some
> > > external
> > > > drives. Here is a run down on what I have;
> > > >
> > > > 2 x server
> > > > server 1 (sbs2003) = 22.4GB full system
> > > > server 2 (w2k server) = 18.1gb full system
> > > >
> > > > Data
> > > > Company folder = 1.02GB
> > > > Users shared = 4.48GB
> > > >
> > > > The above is all the backup locations. no local workstation backups
> will
> > > be
> > > > took intially. I am getting confused about all this daily increments
> and
> > > > shadow copying.
> > > >
> > > > What would you recommend I do?
> > > >
> > > > Aaron
> > > >
> > > > "Kevin Rains" wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > Even though I don't personally use this many tapes, I like the tape
> > > rotation
> > > > > that Jeff Middleton mentions in this post from a couple of years
> ago:
> > > > >
> > > > > <BeginQuote>
> > > > >
> > > > > I don't dedicate a specific subset of the tapes to a particular
> rotation
> > > > > sequence, that is, I don't isolate the tapes used daily from the
> tapes
> > > use
> > > > > weekly, monthly. The rotation I use is actually fairly simple to
> > > describe in
> > > > > progress, but difficult to diagram "the life of a tape in use" or
> > > identify a
> > > > > tape use count on a specific tape at a particular time. Over a year,
> > > it's
> > > > > pretty even. It approaches the balanced wear of using tapes 1 to 15
> and
> > > > > repeat forever.
> > > > >
> > > > > To describe my rotation, let's use the same terms to describe a
> literal
> > > 1 to
> > > > > 15 straight cycle. You make one stack of 15 tapes, each day you pull
> the
> > > > > tape from the drive and place it at the bottom of the stack, pull
> the
> > > next
> > > > > tape at the top of the stack and place it in the drive. Simple
> right?
> > > You
> > > > > don't even need to know which tape is which, you just use the next
> tape.
> > > The
> > > > > stack "flows", rather than having a slot in the middle opening up.
> > > > >
> > > > > Okay, my rotation works the same way, but I reserve 4 stacks, one
> for
> > > each
> > > > > occasion: Daily, Week, Month, reuse Pool.
> > > > >
> > > > > If you came to a site working the rotation already, you would find
> on
> > > any
> > > > > day, anytime you visit: Four stacks (or trays) of tapes like what is
> > > below.
> > > > >
> > > > > Note, the count of tapes in each stack never changes, and the label
> > > > > indicated is the "occasion" those tapes were used for.
> > > > >
> > > > > (3) Pool: Ready to use next.
> > > > > (4) Weekdays: Most recent weekdays run for the past 4 (Mon -
> > > Thurs)
> > > > > (4) End of Week: Most recent end of week tape (Friday) for past
> four
> > > > > weeks
> > > > > (3) End of Month: Most recent last day of month, whatever day it
> was
> > > > > (1) Tape in the drive to run that night.
> > > > >
> > > > > Everytime you pull a tape from the drive, you place it at the bottom
> of
> > > the
> > > > > stack identified for the "occasion" the use of the tape represents,
> and
> > > you
> > > > > pull off the tape from that top of the same stack, returning the
> "new
> > > > > volunteer" into the pool at the bottom position. Now you pull the
> tape
> > > from
> > > > > the top of the pool, put it in the tape drive. That's the rotation.
> > > > >
> > > > > Tape drive to reserved stack, oldest tape from same reserve stack
> goes
> > > to
> > > > > pool, tape next in pool into the tape drive.
> > > > >
> > > > > The main point is that you are not replacing the new tape in the old
> > > tape's
> > > > > position, you are always adding the new tape to the bottom of the
> stack,
> > > > > pulling the tape of the top. Every tape cycles through every stack
> from
> > > > > bottom to top, and the count never changes in any stack. As a
> result,
> > > you
> > > > > would have a hard time predicting which tape cartridge is being used
> the
> > > > > next day, but you know for sure that you have the last 4 weekdays,
> plus
> > > the
> > > > > last 4 Fridays, plus the last three end of months. The pool is
> whatever
> > > > > tapes got kicked out of the stack and return to the rotation.
> > > > >
> > > > > This means there is no tape "always used at the end of the month",
> not
> > > tape
> > > > > "always used only on weekdays". Every tape is working its way
> through
> > > the
> > > > > pool and takes the next job offered, but the thing that is firmly
> > > evident is
> > > > > that you have a recovery set of tapes being used in a fairly random
> > > manner,
> > > > > this gives good tape wear balance, plus you don't have a specific
> tape
> > > used
> > > > > always on a critical event like end of month. If a tape is going to
> > > fail,
> > > > > it's more likely to fail on a daily job because most tapes get more
> runs
> > > on
> > > > > daily use, than the other periods.
> > > > >
> > > > > The caveat is that you actually won't use stacks, you use a front to
> > > back
> > > > > shelfbox or tray to store them, but saying stack is easier to
> visualize
> > > > > because you do like a card game: Always deal off the top of the
> stack,
> > > stuff
> > > > > to the bottom.
> > > > >
> > > > > </EndQuote>
> > > > >
> > > > > Thanks,
> > > > > Kevin
> > > > >
> > > > > "Mark" <info@nospam.mcse2000.com> wrote in message
> > > > > news:OUeiwmKJFHA.2784@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
> > > > > > The best strategy is a 23 tape rotation, full backups
> > > > > > Mon-Fri (5)
> > > > > > Sat (4)
> > > > > > Monthly (12)
> > > > > > Annual (1)
> > > > > >
> > > > > > the 23rd is for the odd times there are 5 weeks in a month
> > > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > > "Aaron (ireland)" <Aaronireland@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote
> in
> > > > > message
> > > > > > news:A6E652EC-E0D5-4A3F-AB63-7E63763F692B@microsoft.com...
> > > > > > > Hi All,
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > I have been searching this newsgroup for some time now. I am
> having
> > > > > > > problems
> > > > > > > creating a backup strategy for my network. One of my main
> problems
> > > is
> > > > > the
> > > > > > > sqeunce in which the backups are carried out i.e. daily, weekly,
> > > monthly
> > > > > > > and
> > > > > > > so on.
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > I would love to set the backup so that I never lose any files.
> The
> > > > > backups
> > > > > > > are around 57GB this include 2 full server backups and company
> > > folders
> > > > > > > which
> > > > > > > are 1GB and the user folders 15GB.
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > Can some one guide me.
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > Aaron
> > > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
>
>
>
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