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| Thread ID: 91529 | 2008-07-10 02:07:00 | Backup strategy, comment on ours please | Oggy (5399) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 687233 | 2008-07-10 02:07:00 | We're having a debate at work at the moment about what backup strategy to implement with our new server. We are using 3 'My Book' 500gb external hardrives for storage . We have decided to do full daily backups of our data with one working week per drive on a two week cycle. So we'll do one week's backups, replace that drive with the second one for the next week and at the end of the second week we'll start using the first one again. This means we should always have between one and two weeks worth of daily backups on hand. As a second layer we will do a full backup every fortnight on a third drive and this will give us about 20 weeks worth of fortnightly backups. This will certainly give us enough backup for a disaster recovery to keep the business going. Now some have now said that they want to keep daily backups for up to 6 months. :yuck: It's taken a long time to get to my questions but here they are. Bearing in mind this is for business, not home: 1) "Have you ever restored from a backup that was older than your most recent backup" 1a) "If so, what is the furthest back you have gone in time to restore from a backup that was older than your most recent backup?" 2) "Do you think our strategy is A] not sufficient, b] safe enough c] overkill Thanks guys. |
Oggy (5399) | ||
| 687234 | 2008-07-10 04:27:00 | Your backup strategy doesn't sound to bad - Rotating the storage media is a good idea, take a worse case - if you used only 1 storage media, and that failed for what ever reason, then every thing is lost, BUT if the latest backups ( that week) is lost at least you will only have to go back 1 week on the other media and recover the data from there, better to lose 1 weeks worth than years worth. How far back have I gone on using a back up ? 1 week, the backups prior to that got corrupted some how. BUT I use a Windows Home Server to do automatic nightly back ups of the whole system(s) - 4 computers, with automatic daily backups of all important data to another server, so it was use 1 complete back up from a week - then drag the files I wanted from the other server. - kind of double backups. The question that needs to be asked regarding how far back to go, is what HAS to be available, and what can not be lost, or is important. If you need to have backups for a lengthy time, if able burn them to DVD's and keep in a safe place off site. One other thing with ANY backups they should be tested regularly - back ups are of no use if they don't work. Any backups should also be kept off site or in a fireproof safe - no point if the building burns down and he backups are in the same location. |
wainuitech (129) | ||
| 687235 | 2008-07-10 04:59:00 | At my work, we have Mon,Tues,Wed & Thursday daily tapes, with Fri 1 Fri 2 etc to Fri 4, and for last day of the month we have 6 monthly tapes... Current week is good for daily restores, then we go back weekly then monthly, the furthermost I have gone back is 1 month! |
SolMiester (139) | ||
| 687236 | 2008-07-10 22:12:00 | As at right now there have been 77 views of this thread and only two viewers have commented. I'll take that to mean what we have proposed is reasonable. | Oggy (5399) | ||
| 687237 | 2008-07-10 22:35:00 | I am not that "technical" but have experience in offices and backups etc. I did not see any reference to storing backups off site as Wainouotech suggests. I would also backup key company data, eg word files, databases accounts etc to DVD RW's and taking those off site every day. Then I would load those DVD's to another machine and test them. You can easily set up a new system. But you can never easily reconstruct your companies data. |
Digby (677) | ||
| 687238 | 2008-07-10 22:38:00 | No way you need to keep daily backups for 6 months! Most of our clients who use tapes have two tapes for each day - Mon,Tue,Wed,Thur - 3 tapes for Fri and a couple of monthly tapes. |
CYaBro (73) | ||
| 687239 | 2008-07-10 23:00:00 | Some software that I have found great is ShadowProtect. They have different versions for desktops and servers and also an IT version. With this you set it to do a system backup at intervals right down to every 15 mins while everyone continues working. It will do a full system the first time and then incrementals after that until the next scheduled full backup. You can tell it how many full backups to keep and any incrementals belonging to that full backup. The beauty of this software is that if something major happens to the server or desktop you can take the backup drive to another machine, boot off the ShadowProtect CD and restore the system to that machine. After it does the restore it will scan the new machines hardware and make any changes required for drivers etc to the restored system so Windows will boot. I have had to do this before and the server was up and running again in about an hour! |
CYaBro (73) | ||
| 687240 | 2008-07-11 01:37:00 | I did not see any reference to storing backups off-site as Wainouotech suggests. Our first week drive will be kept off site while the second week drive is doing it's thing and then vice versa. It means that we won't always have the latest backup off-site but will always have one between one and five working days off-site. Our fortnightly backup will also live off-site You can easily set up a new system. But you can never easily reconstruct your companies data. Because of the way our business operates, we could quite comfortably live with a one week old restored backup so an absolutely up to date one would not slow us down too much. It would probably be the least of our worries if the building burned down which is probably our greatest risk. |
Oggy (5399) | ||
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