Want to create a remote backup solution for a Network

sibeer

sibeer

sibeer

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Joined
13 Oct 2005
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532
Location
Wirral, Merseyside
Hi there,

I am currently a bit sick of changing tapes in our Windows XP file server so am considering a new backup project. Our office creates no more than 100-200MB new files a day so I would like to back them up over the ADSL2 connections to a remote file server (ideally Linux hence why I am on this forum).

No idea where to start on this project but the requirements would be as follows:

1. Simple differential backup software to run nightly on the Server in work.

2. On running will send a WOL signal to remote box, then start sending any new or updated files.

3. On completion the Linux box will send an email to confirm success.

4. Whole project will preferably use opensource / free software, Linux box system requirements to be fairly basic.

Here's hoping for some good pointers from those of you more experienced in this sort of thing :)
 
Have a look at rsync, it should be fine for what your asking for i think, its a robust program/algorithm which will keep a set of local and remote files in sync (mirrored), only problem i think is with the emailing when its completed, but im pretty sure you could hack some scripts together to get the extra functionality you require.

There may well be some more specilaised solutions, cant say im familliar with any though :)
 
JonRohan said:
Why not keep it simple and use an Offiste Backup provider to do it properly?
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I like the idea of learning to do it myself. As I have what I presume to be all the necessary equipment it will also make the solution free (other than a bit of time setting up). In the current econimic climate my company needs as much savings as it can muster :)
 
tntcoder said:
Have a look at rsync, it should be fine for what your asking for i think, its a robust program/algorithm which will keep a set of local and remote files in sync (mirrored), only problem i think is with the emailing when its completed, but im pretty sure you could hack some scripts together to get the extra functionality you require.

There may well be some more specilaised solutions, cant say im familliar with any though :)
Click to expand...

Will have a look into rsync then. Thanks for the suggestion. It seems to be what some of the cheap paid offsite backup companies offer anyway :)
 
sibeer said:
I like the idea of learning to do it myself. As I have what I presume to be all the necessary equipment it will also make the solution free (other than a bit of time setting up). In the current econimic climate my company needs as much savings as it can muster :)
Click to expand...

If your company is skimping on backups for all of £20 per month I'd be worried.

The power consumption of a pc / server and purchase of equipment for the backup will probably cost more.

I'm all for learning but sometimes there are better solutions. :)
 
SyncBack SE seems to be what your looking for, it's not a linux solution. But it seems to have everything you have asked for such as sending confirmation emails, one license covers five computers.

You can either have it backup to some web space which can be pretty cheap these days from a web hosting company such as TSO host. Or you can set it up to back up to a local machine on the network. Personally I would backup to an external server off site for extra protection.
 
SyncBackSE does work well. I've used it in the past to backup to a linux box over SFTP.

One thing I've found with rsync from Windows -> Linux is that it is very slow.

Mozy do an unlimited backup service for about £50 per year, I use it for my home backups totalling about 17.8 GB. Its a great service and costs nothing in comparison.
 
JonRohan said:
If your company is skimping on backups for all of £20 per month I'd be worried.

The power consumption of a pc / server and purchase of equipment for the backup will probably cost more.

I'm all for learning but sometimes there are better solutions. :)
Click to expand...

Thing is that I have a server always on standby or booted at home. As such I envisage no cost to this option. It will also be used with weekly Ultrium backups, and the main storage area is a RAID 1 array. I just want to know that there is a seperate copy of our files being updated with no user intervention and off site.

Whist £20 per month is far from the end of the world, what is the point if i can manage a similar service for free myself?
 
JonRohan said:
SyncBackSE does work well. I've used it in the past to backup to a linux box over SFTP.

One thing I've found with rsync from Windows -> Linux is that it is very slow.

Mozy do an unlimited backup service for about £50 per year, I use it for my home backups totalling about 17.8 GB. Its a great service and costs nothing in comparison.
Click to expand...

Well that's three options to look into now, thanks very much for everyone's help.

The Mozy option has even got me reconsidering external storage. The server at my office is only a XP server and we work of a Workgroup so should be able to use the Home solution. $5/month for software and webspace is so cheap that it may not even be worth the setup time for other options.
 
sibeer said:
The Mozy option has even got me reconsidering external storage. The server at my office is only a XP server and we work of a Workgroup so should be able to use the Home solution. $5/month for software and webspace is so cheap that it may not even be worth the setup time for other options.
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Mozy is great, I have the Home solution and it just works, like you say for $5 per month its hardly worth messing around. :). Not to mention your electricity costs would be more to keep another PC on offsite :(.

Good luck in whatever you do.
 
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