Backup Solution

chris06 · 4 Feb 2010 at 15:14

Hi,

My company are looking for a new backup solution but only have a buget of around 5k max. We have around 10 servers that we need to backup with a total size of around 5tb of Data.

The boss is looking for some kind of backup to disk solution and seems as though there are many knowelegable people on here I thought i'd see if anyone has any suggestions of solutions that fit the buget?

Thanks

Chris

paradigm · 4 Feb 2010 at 15:16

When you say "backup to disk", what kind of "disk" do you mean?

I'd never backup solely to magnetic storage.

chris06 · 4 Feb 2010 at 15:23

paradigm said:
When you say "backup to disk", what kind of "disk" do you mean?

I'd never backup solely to magnetic storage.

Well, he's currently looking into purchasing the Dell Powervault MD1000 to backup all the servers to that?

I've got no experience when it comes to backup systems so I'm open to any suggestions that I can pass on?

Mr_T · 5 Feb 2010 at 03:30

I've got some experience with the MD1000 and backup solutions - sounds like you're in the early stages of planning, if so how fixed in stone is the budget? Also the more info you can provide about the environment the better - what is your existing backup strategy?

Also you need to think about off site storage - with the amount of data you're talking about you will need a product that deals in delta changes. Unfortunately these tend to be fairly expensive.

The solution we ended up implementing was a combination of Symantec BackupExec for local disk based backups & Symantec NetBackup PureDisk which handled off site replication of the delta changes in data at a block level.

sportq · 5 Feb 2010 at 08:42

paradigm said:
I'd never backup solely to magnetic storage.

Do you print everything out then?

Pete

paradigm · 5 Feb 2010 at 08:50

sportq said:
Do you print everything out then?

Pete

No, we backup to SAN, External HDD, Tape (Ultrium 4), and DVD-RW.

Spot the non-magnetic storage.

chris06 · 5 Feb 2010 at 10:10

Mr_T said:
I've got some experience with the MD1000 and backup solutions - sounds like you're in the early stages of planning, if so how fixed in stone is the budget? Also the more info you can provide about the environment the better - what is your existing backup strategy?

Also you need to think about off site storage - with the amount of data you're talking about you will need a product that deals in delta changes. Unfortunately these tend to be fairly expensive.

The solution we ended up implementing was a combination of Symantec BackupExec for local disk based backups & Symantec NetBackup PureDisk which handled off site replication of the delta changes in data at a block level.

Hi There,

Unfortunately, the buget is set and 5k is the absolute max that the company can afford to invest. Obviously, we are aware that with such a little buget were not going to be able to purchase an "all singing all dancing solution"

Existing stratagy untill a few days ago was to back everything up to a HP MSL5052 robotic tape library, unfortunately, this has now broke and is deemed to expensive to fix.

We already have software (Backup Exec) so only need the actual hardware. The boss is not interested in off site backup, I guess he must not feel the data is that important.

What are your thoughts on the MD1000? We already have a Poweredge 2900 ready to connect it to.

Thanks

RSR · 5 Feb 2010 at 10:16

Have you looked at the Netapp Storevault range?

5k isn't going to buy you a lot in terms of Tape Librarys and drives.

Edit: NetApp have killed off the Storevault range, in favour of the 2000 series, so thats a no go.

paradigm · 5 Feb 2010 at 10:20

chris06 said:
The boss is not interested in off site backup, I guess he must not feel the data is that important.

I would do my utmost to make him realise that not having off-site backup can actually be the death of a company should the worst arise.

Imagine losing EVERYTHING, and having no quick way of getting the company back up and running.

RSR · 5 Feb 2010 at 10:29

paradigm said:
I would do my utmost to make him realise that not having off-site backup can actually be the death of a company should the worst arise.

Imagine losing EVERYTHING, and having no quick way of getting the company back up and running.

This!

Offsite storage isn't too expensive these days. Even if you don't have a online backup offsite you should be at the very least sending tapes offsite. I would have though thats just comman sence.

Mr_T · 5 Feb 2010 at 10:35

I'm trying to think of some kind of cheapish solution that would allow you to have an offsite backup...

How about this:-

Get an MD1000 - from memory they have 13 drive bays, if you setup a raid 5+1 on it (using 12x1.5TB sata drives in raid 5+1 would give you 7.5TB capacity for each side(6 drives for each raid5) of the mirror. In theory (and I'm not advocating this because it's nuts and you should have a proper off site backup) you could break the mirror and take one half of the mirror (6x sata drives) off site every night. Plug them back in every morning and rebuild the mirror.

lol - actually that's totally mental, how much would it cost to get your MSL5052 fixed?

RSR · 5 Feb 2010 at 10:45

Can you not get a HP care pack on it?

Yamahahahahaha · 5 Feb 2010 at 11:51

Disk to Disk to Tape sounds like it's needed here.

An LTO-4 drive will set you back around £1700+ with 3 year warranty.

You've then got £3300 to play around with additional disks etc.

MD1000 with a bunch of big drives to back up to in a RAID6. Specifics will vary with pricing but it makes the most sense.

chris06 · 5 Feb 2010 at 12:07

I agree with everything that everybody has suggested regarding offsite backup etc but i'm not important enough for my views to count. I will be doing all I can to try and change their views and make them realise how important it is.

If we forget about off site for a moment, does anyone have any views on the MD1000? or any suitable alternatives?

chris06 · 5 Feb 2010 at 12:08

Yamahahahahaha said:
Disk to Disk to Tape sounds like it's needed here.

An LTO-4 drive will set you back around £1700+ with 3 year warranty.

You've then got £3300 to play around with additional disks etc.

MD1000 with a bunch of big drives to back up to in a RAID6. Specifics will vary with pricing but it makes the most sense.

This sounds like a possibility, Ill look in to that. Thanks

Banzai_Joe · 5 Feb 2010 at 12:21

We have, although slightly old now a 8-bay LTO2 autoloader that is attached to our storageserver. Cos its only LTO2 it requires 4 tapes per daily backup set, which backs up ALL our data (currently 820Gb) using Symantec BackupExec. I take the tapes off-site daily and put the next days set in the following morning.
LTO4 would be the better bet for you though.
It is, our only backup adn we don't have a hot site sadly, not even a luke warm one.

AndrewP · 8 Feb 2010 at 19:56

MD1000s are pretty decent, we use a couple as disk backup arrays with SATA disks. You'll need a PERC 5e or 6e card and SAS cable (usually end up with a 4m one when the server is right above the disk shelf!) too. They're easy to control with OpenManage too.

It also depends what pricing you can get from Dell or a reseller, £5k is probably enough for an MD1000 with a few disks though. For example, one with 8 x 1TB including PERC 6 card is £3400 through our company account or double that for Joe Bloggs!