Sign up with GoogleCompany with approx 120 +- users, we are currently using some tape drive backups it's not backing up what we want it to,We want to backup all the users pc, is it worth looking at NAS? or just using a backup server? if you have any suggestions or link of products please feel free to link them,thanks in advance for any help.
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SOME BACKUP ADVICE NEEDED
- Thread starter Wong
- Start date
Happy Camper
Expert Member
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- Jul 21, 2009
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I've just set up an online backup server, using the latest ubuntu and a nifty package called Luckybackup 
works like teh bomb! Just a bit of a mission to get all the remote paths etc set up but once that's done you're good to go. But for the amount of pc's you need to back up I'm not sure if my solution is the one you need.
works like teh bomb! Just a bit of a mission to get all the remote paths etc set up but once that's done you're good to go. But for the amount of pc's you need to back up I'm not sure if my solution is the one you need.
Anthro
Expert Member
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- Jun 13, 2006
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I use Cobian backup for our company internal backups, with a rotating 3 1.5Tb storage system, works over mapped drive etc.
You can download the program in binary or source form SourceForge. The code is licensed under the Mozilla Public License 1.1
Linkie
If you are in a domain environment I would suggest having all the users not save info on their own PC's.
Depending on the environment, you can then setup a 'backup' user with rights to folders.
It also has remote admin features which are very nifty
You can download the program in binary or source form SourceForge. The code is licensed under the Mozilla Public License 1.1
Linkie
If you are in a domain environment I would suggest having all the users not save info on their own PC's.
Depending on the environment, you can then setup a 'backup' user with rights to folders.
It also has remote admin features which are very nifty
Last edited:
Hey Wong,
What operating system are you running? If it’s Windows Server (hopefully 2008 R2) then you can back-up an instance off all the system’s My Documents etc. We use this system at my present employment and it works like a charm when a system goes down.
What exactly do you want to back-up, images of the machines or specific folders? If it’s specific then you can try the Win server option above. Otherwise you could also try a dedicated NAS system or a second server just for back-ups. A NAS would be cheaper, but you'll be limited to your current internal network speed.
How much data is there to back-up and are you looking at on-site or off-site? Off-sire would be a more secure option, but then your company will need a uncapped internet solution for that.
What operating system are you running? If it’s Windows Server (hopefully 2008 R2) then you can back-up an instance off all the system’s My Documents etc. We use this system at my present employment and it works like a charm when a system goes down.
What exactly do you want to back-up, images of the machines or specific folders? If it’s specific then you can try the Win server option above. Otherwise you could also try a dedicated NAS system or a second server just for back-ups. A NAS would be cheaper, but you'll be limited to your current internal network speed.
How much data is there to back-up and are you looking at on-site or off-site? Off-sire would be a more secure option, but then your company will need a uncapped internet solution for that.
Thanks for your reply's
@Happycamper + Anthropoid -Will be checking out your options aswell thanks
@BlueGeek:
Hi, We are running 2008 r2, they want to back up all users accounts/profile as in their (documents ,desktop etc),is it possible to just to select their user profile on each of their pc's and backup just that folder? With regards to the NAS option we have a servers offsite so we could possible do onsite and offsite backups by putting a NAS their and then sync the two NAS's, I’m a bit unsure if this is a good idea security wise or am i just being paranoid ,Total data being backed up probably around 200gb +- , Would you suggest backing up the images rather or the specific folders?
@Happycamper + Anthropoid -Will be checking out your options aswell thanks
@BlueGeek:
Hi, We are running 2008 r2, they want to back up all users accounts/profile as in their (documents ,desktop etc),is it possible to just to select their user profile on each of their pc's and backup just that folder? With regards to the NAS option we have a servers offsite so we could possible do onsite and offsite backups by putting a NAS their and then sync the two NAS's, I’m a bit unsure if this is a good idea security wise or am i just being paranoid
,Total data being backed up probably around 200gb +- , Would you suggest backing up the images rather or the specific folders?You can just set what you want to back-up (synchronize) with Server. If you log onto a machine as User then all your documents will download to the machine. If you logged in as User2 then all of User2's documents will download to the machine and so forth. As you save a document in My Documents [example] it'll immediately synchronize to the server - same with Outlook.
It'll be better to just do the selected folders. When restoring it'll be easier for that than doing the image of a machine. The programs you work with (per user), can they be reinstalled if needed? If so then just do folder back-ups.
If you're really paranoid (I know I am with stuff like this) then try get two NAS systems that allow you to do RAID 1. You'll have, as an example, 1 x 1TB drive that has all of the data - the second 1TB drive will mirror all of that info on it so if the primary drive packs up you still have all of it. A second one can be done off-site in the same way.
Some might say that this is excessive, but you then have to think, "How much is my company data worth?"
It'll be better to just do the selected folders. When restoring it'll be easier for that than doing the image of a machine. The programs you work with (per user), can they be reinstalled if needed? If so then just do folder back-ups.
If you're really paranoid (I know I am with stuff like this) then try get two NAS systems that allow you to do RAID 1. You'll have, as an example, 1 x 1TB drive that has all of the data - the second 1TB drive will mirror all of that info on it so if the primary drive packs up you still have all of it. A second one can be done off-site in the same way.
Some might say that this is excessive, but you then have to think, "How much is my company data worth?"
When you say "machine" are you referring to the user’s pc? or are you referring to the NAS? Would you suggest using the NAS as A file server as well as backing up the user's PST's? At the moment the users pst's are stored on their local machines. With the 2 NAS units would that be 2 onsite and 2 offsite? (sorry if my questions seem silly , I’m fairly new to the IT game) I noticed most NAS's that I’ve looked at have prebuilt backup and raid configurations is it better to use the supplied software or use something else? Do you have any links to NAS's that you would suggest to buy and/or any software to use that you would recommend ?
Machine would be the user's own machine.
Rather use NAS as back-up. 120 people accessing a NAS at once is pretty much chaos and a disaster waiting to happen. Have 1 on-site and 1 off-site. If you want to add more that's entirely up to you.
I know that Patriot does a unit called the Valkyrie, which looks like a decent NAS. This is the supplier's page - haven't seen it sold locally.
Most of the supplied software is pretty good, but you can look around. Nothing comes to mind at present I know with Windows 7 [another example] you can tell your machine to back-up to a external device so again fiddle with Windows server and see what's right for you.
Rather use NAS as back-up. 120 people accessing a NAS at once is pretty much chaos and a disaster waiting to happen. Have 1 on-site and 1 off-site. If you want to add more that's entirely up to you.
I know that Patriot does a unit called the Valkyrie, which looks like a decent NAS. This is the supplier's page - haven't seen it sold locally.
Most of the supplied software is pretty good, but you can look around. Nothing comes to mind at present
I know with Windows 7 [another example] you can tell your machine to back-up to a external device so again fiddle with Windows server and see what's right for you.Try SOS Online Backup
Hi Wong,
Give SOS Online Backup a try. Backing up online sure beats backing up just locally.
It's highly recommended by PC Magazine, integrates local backup with online/offsite backup,
and you can backup as many machines as you want with just one account.
www.sosonlinebackup.com
http://info.sosonlinebackup.com/sos-for-business.html
Hi Wong,
Give SOS Online Backup a try. Backing up online sure beats backing up just locally.
It's highly recommended by PC Magazine, integrates local backup with online/offsite backup,
and you can backup as many machines as you want with just one account.
www.sosonlinebackup.com
http://info.sosonlinebackup.com/sos-for-business.html
Asha'man X
Expert Member
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- Aug 31, 2006
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- 1,401
We run a Server 2008 network here at our school, and use BackupPC running on a Linux box to backup the data on the server. That is all the documents, files etc, but not the OS. For that we use the built in Windows Backup tool, then back that up with BackupPC. When we set up the server, we made 2 drives, one with the OS and other files, and a huge D drive for everything else.
BackupPC works pretty well, but development looks like it is quite slow, so features seem to be falling behind.
BackupPC works pretty well, but development looks like it is quite slow, so features seem to be falling behind.
Hi
Not sure on what your budget is like but we use a software application called Veritas backup which enables us to backup all users PC's just by installing a link to the main server app. This application allows us to set 1 main backup task with specified system folders such as your "Documents and Settings" folder for the user which has the desktop and my documents and that backs up to a file server and then we run a second backup task which backs up the entire backup folder from the file server to a tape library.
It is a bit of a costly solution but a very nice and user friendly system.
Not sure on what your budget is like but we use a software application called Veritas backup which enables us to backup all users PC's just by installing a link to the main server app. This application allows us to set 1 main backup task with specified system folders such as your "Documents and Settings" folder for the user which has the desktop and my documents and that backs up to a file server and then we run a second backup task which backs up the entire backup folder from the file server to a tape library.
It is a bit of a costly solution but a very nice and user friendly system.
The_Unbeliever
Honorary Master
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- Apr 19, 2005
- Messages
- 103,196
Build a workstation with a good CPU, RAM and oodles of hard drive space.
Then you either use any of the opensource products to synchronize data from your main server to this workstation, one-way only, so that deleted files on the main server does not get deleted on this workstation.
This makes recovering from accidental file deletions much easier.
And, should the main server bork for whatever reason, you'll have a good backup which'll be out by a few hours, and which the users can use to proceed whilst you're rebuilding the main server. Very little downtime.
But my recommendation is to still do tape backups just in case. Tape backups together with this type of synchromized workstation/server will ensure speedy recovery from disaster.
The idea then, is to put your tapes offsite, and should data corruption occur, then you know you can refer to the tapes.
Luckily data corruption is very scarce, but it can (and might) happen.
I do hope you've set up a backup domain controller just in case...
Then you either use any of the opensource products to synchronize data from your main server to this workstation, one-way only, so that deleted files on the main server does not get deleted on this workstation.
This makes recovering from accidental file deletions much easier.
And, should the main server bork for whatever reason, you'll have a good backup which'll be out by a few hours, and which the users can use to proceed whilst you're rebuilding the main server. Very little downtime.
But my recommendation is to still do tape backups just in case. Tape backups together with this type of synchromized workstation/server will ensure speedy recovery from disaster.
The idea then, is to put your tapes offsite, and should data corruption occur, then you know you can refer to the tapes.
Luckily data corruption is very scarce, but it can (and might) happen.
I do hope you've set up a backup domain controller just in case...
The product you are looking for is called Connected. It has a client that runs on the workstation and grabs the folders that you specify and backs it up to a server. If it finds a copy of the same file on several workstations and the files are 100% identical, it will only keep one copy of that file with a reference to all the workstations that have that file. It can do a million and one other things.