Offsite realtime backup challenge

[Heeter]

Hey all,

I am wondering,

this DC/Fileserver backs up incrementally nightly, and whole backup on weekends. The boss thens takes the tapes home with him.

I just retired a Win2000Pro workstation, I reformatted it and reinstalled Windows2000pro.

I am wondering if I place this workstation at the boss's house, could I somehow get the Server to connect fulltime/parttime and backup directly to the workstation from the office. What software/settings would make this work?

I would replace the single harddrive setup with a PCI RAID/Mirror dual drive setup if this can be accomplished.

Heeter

 

[fitz]

I could think of various ways to do this depending on what you are using for backup and budget.. there are quite a few concerns, however, starting with security (backup over Internet - even using a VPN solution, I don't know if I want my DC backup going over the internet) and performance depending on how much data is being backed up.

 

[_kC_]

ssl ftp or vpn over a leased line

 

[kcnychief]

What I do is have my backups run, and then it transfers through SFTP to my server. The backups run at 9:30, transfers start at 10 (plenty of time, Acronis is quick), and then I have a scheduled task that runs locally to move the files on the weekends on the FTP server.

There is another directory that changes often, so I actually have that share SYNC with a folder on the FTP server.

Scheduling tasks within WS_FTP pro is great

I agree though, does depend on the size of the data. These backup files are about 2.5GB-3GB nightly. Also need to verify they won't get in trouble for uploading that much (sending offsite) with their ISP.

 

[madmatt]

I agree with what has been said above. I'd recommend a tape backup solution (Backup Exec is my favorite) with a rotation. Much, much cheaper.

 

[kcnychief]

Cheaper indeed, but some people don't like the manual process. A selling point I use when pushing my service to people is that with tape, they need to rotate daily and can only have a 5 day history of backups (normally only have 5 tapes). However, with my services, they have a week on site and up to 30 days archived on my FTP

$$$$$$$$

 

[fitz]

only 5 tapes??!?

 

[madmatt]

Two week rotation with month end and year end.

 

[kcnychief]

These are my side clients, small business

 

[Electronic Punk]

I am looking at replacing our regional backups with a big fat DFS share.
It scares me how big it might get, but its going to be alot of fun.

 

[Heeter]

What I do is have my backups run, and then it transfers through SFTP to my server. The backups run at 9:30, transfers start at 10 (plenty of time, Acronis is quick), and then I have a scheduled task that runs locally to move the files on the weekends on the FTP server.

There is another directory that changes often, so I actually have that share SYNC with a folder on the FTP server.

Scheduling tasks within WS_FTP pro is great

I agree though, does depend on the size of the data. These backup files are about 2.5GB-3GB nightly. Also need to verify they won't get in trouble for uploading that much (sending offsite) with their ISP.

My client is certainly interested in your setup, I told about your answer. I think that he has had it up to here with tape backup and tapes going bad, and Dell hammering him for new tapes and such.

Maybe you can tell me more of going through FTP, maybe all software needed as well. He will purchase any software needed to make this work. I am already going out to get him a RAID PCI card and new drives to setup his home end of this equation.

Thanks, D.

Helder

 

[kcnychief]

Well the real selling point for me with people was that they would come in, swap the tape with a new one, and take that tape home. There was no auditing of what was being backed up, the success/failure of the job, etc. This was setup by another consultant long before me and never really addressed.

First off, I use Acronis True Image Enterprise Server for Server backups. It is a little on the pricey side from what I remember, but not entirely sure you would need to switch software packages if they already have a viable solution in place. In the environment I do, I perform FULL backups nightly, mostly because space isn't an issue (less than 3GB per backup), and when restores occur they need to be fast. I personally prefer not to have to deal with loading a full backup and then subsequent incrementals. However, I do have a client with 15GB nightly backups so I do things differently there. Another thing I like about Acronis, and I'm sure others have this as well, is I can send an e-mail to myself (and to my client, they like to be in the loop), with a summary of the backup job. It lists what was backed up, and the success or any failure. This gives me the ability to keep an eye on things without any effort, just check the e-mail once a day.

Once that is complete, I use WS_FTP Pro to transfer to the FTP site. WS_FTP goes right to the directory that I setup for this client, and the backups are named MONDAY, TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY, etc. As a result, once a week on either Saturday or Sunday, I transfer them all to a manually created, archived date folder. These folders are named such as WE 09-09-2007 (tomorrow's backup set). I keep a 30 day history, so each week when I create a new folder I delete the oldest. I have never had to go back that far, but again, it's a comfort item for them. With tapes they could go as far back as the tapes they had, with my service they can go back as far as 30 days (may actually have a client who wants a 90 day history as they are a CPA).

So, at this point, they have a 5 day history on site for emergency backups, and 30 days with me. Obviously if it's outside of the 5 day history I need to transfer files back to their location as needed.

Works really well, but keep in mind you should check with his ISP on the business side on their limitations to upstream bandwidth per month. Not very common, but good to know ahead of time instead of going into the office one morning and not having service because they killed your connection.

Not a lot too it really - if you have any other questions feel free to post Good luck!