I am looking for a backup solution for this scenario:
- 3 servers (One Linux mail server, 2 Windows Servers)
- ~ 10TB of data
- 2 TB of which are in daily use
- a few GB of activity/change per day
- ability to restore data from any point in time
- backing up is performed on a live system (international office)
- A MSSQL database needs backing up as well
- There is no sufficient network connection to back data up off-site
- Uncomplicated access (native file system) to the secured data.
At the moment the backing up of data is handled by carrying out the delta on portable disks to an off-site location. But the software is not completely reliable (something home cooked).
We pondered whether to purchase a tape library solution from Dell, but are not very convinced that tapes are the way to go for this relatively small amout of data.
How would you set up this kind of data backup?
What software would you recommend?
Carrying disks with the delta to an off-site server to a mirror server is an option. What kind of hardware would you use?
Best Answer
What i would recommend for an on-site solution to start off with is to invest in a a backup server that has a good amount of room for expansion.
I was recently looking into the possibly deploying a tape drive solution with HP tape drivers and i was very turned off by the low amount of storage per tape, high price and the fact if i need to upgrade it i might as well throw the old tape drive out the window.
One thing you might want to look at is Drobo pro, if you load one of them up with 2tb drives you can get 16tb. I have been looking to give one of these a go ( When i get the funds :) ) but i have herd great reviews about them and the fact that a few years down the track you need to upgrade you just take a few drives out and put in some new hard drive that has yet more ridiculous amounts of space.