Tape drive replacement technology

[TheGuy]

Hi Guys

I'm busy trying to find a good replacement for using tapes as backup.

My reasons are as follows:

1. Tape drives does not support deduplication
2. Slower backup and Restore times
3. When doing VM backups the whole VHD needs to be restored to recover one file.


I know we can use USB drives but I'm looking more for something like solution where you push the drives into the server like you do with tapes. Using drives that has been designed for this type of solution.

Any ideas?

 

[katangeleus]

Backup to disk.. Invest in VSS backups solution as that will backup your whole VM. Attix 5 does deduplication and it is impressive.

Dell Sells R510 or what ever the new model which can hold I think up to 14 disks on each server, that means With RAID 5 and @2tb a Disk ... 23TB.

With Dedupulication you will litrally save TB's of space and buy two servers that mirror each other so if one fails, the other has a backup.

 

[katangeleus]

Dell also sell a backup disk that looks like a tape in a special drive you slot into a server. One of my clients use them, Just like tapes but they are portible disks and they are pretty cheap.

That might be cheaper if you already have purchased backup software.

Personally I prefer not to waste my time replacing hard disks or slotting in tapes every night. With a Disk to Disk backup solution all your backups are in a central place and you save time and money not loading tapes each night. Also save money storing the darn things off site.

 

[TheGuy]

Dell also sell a backup disk that looks like a tape in a special drive you slot into a server. One of my clients use them, Just like tapes but they are portible disks and they are pretty cheap.

That might be cheaper if you already have purchased backup software.

Personally I prefer not to waste my time replacing hard disks or slotting in tapes every night. With a Disk to Disk backup solution all your backups are in a central place and you save time and money not loading tapes each night. Also save money storing the darn things off site.

Thanks I'll look into the Dell solution. Problem is the data needs to be taken offsite and some client don't want online backups

 

[katangeleus]

Oh, that blows. I have a 256k link which seems slower than a dialup modem at times and to backup one of my servers in Botswana and it takes about 30 minutes, That includes a VM. The great thing about deduplication is that it only sends files that have changed to the backup server.

 

[katangeleus]

A side note is that maybe it would be easier convincing your clients to move into the 21st century and start using better technology.

I was very sceptical then I first used online backups but it changed my life in that I don't need to fly out to fix or restore, I just do it over the phone or RDP to a client and restore their data.

 

[PsyWulf]

Always incremental type backups like Dell Appassure is an option,or for the truly prepared admin d2d2tape backup

 

[TheGuy]

A side note is that maybe it would be easier convincing your clients to move into the 21st century and start using better technology.

I was very sceptical then I first used online backups but it changed my life in that I don't need to fly out to fix or restore, I just do it over the phone or RDP to a client and restore their data.

I agree with you Online is the way to go but sometimes it does not work. Like at some sites client can't get the proper infrastructure in place. Other clients their daily changes is too big to sync over a line. So we are sort of stuck between a rock and a hard place.

 

[ghalied]

Cheap old isci device, ms dpm or backup exe, tapes totally out of the equation then.