Backup Solutions for Small Tech Companies?

Brushfireb asks: "This has been hit on before, but given the cheap cost of hard drives, larger capacities and speed increases in possible storage (USB2, FIOS, etc) we though that an update would be really helpful. Here's the scenario: We are a small tech company and we have an assortment of workstations (Macs, Linux and Windows desktops), and servers (Web, Database, File, e-Mail, DNS, etc) that run on different Linux distributions. What advice or recommendations do Slashdot readers have for our needs that: won't break the bank; won't force us to take our servers down for an extended period of time (our servers must run 24/7); are reliable; and are easily to maintain. What are some typical mistakes that small tech companies make when it comes to backing up? What software and hardware do Slashdot readers use to accomplish these tasks in similar situations?"

Comments

rsnapshot and/or backuppc

[DRue]

I use and recommend rsnapshot for taking disk-to-disk backups of unix based servers and PCs. It has a *really* slick directory structure where each daily/weekly/monthly backup directory is a *full* snapshot - but by using hard links, it only saves the changed files multiple times. Also, because it uses rsync, it only copies changed files across the network, and can use ssh no problem.

It's downsides: it's basically just a wrapper for rsync. It requires a lot of babysitting (if your backups fail for some reason, it'll try to do full backups the next day possibly with disasterous consequences as it tries to jam hundreds of gig down your T1). Also, it has to log in as root on all of your boxes, so there are some very careful sercurity considerations.

But a box with a bunch of disks in it, put it off site, and whamo you have a complete backup solution.

For the windows users, I like backuppc. I have never actually used it, but it allows windows users to choose when their backups are taken, and allows them to recover files themselves through a web interface. It's big downside is the cryptic way it stores files internally, making it really hard to extract files without using the web interface.

Re:rsnapshot and/or backuppc

[giverson]

rsync + hard links is awesome. And since rsync runs on most any platform, I backup Netware/Windows Server/Windows XP and Linux to our Debian backup server. I use Apache for single file restore and a Samba share for multiple files. (Only admins can restore ATM)

I didn't use rsnapshot (didn't know about it), instead I wrote a script to take care of the linking.

It's easy, it's fast, it's reliable and I don't miss Backup Exec at all.

Re:Large raid system with periodic offsite backups

[Nutria]

It is backed up nightly onto a large raid system, and then once a week it is backed up to dvd from the raid.

And if on the 6th day the RAID controller goes haywire and screws up your data, you've lost 6 days of inserts/updates/deletes.

Maybe your data is pretty static, but for most 99.9% of businesses, daily backups are essential.

Backuppc

[sr180]

We have used backupPC for around 9 months now. A linux based server (Fedora Core 2) with 6 200gb USB2 external drives. The drives are encrypted using a pre-generated key that is stored locally (also encrypted) and off site on cd multiple secure locations. The drives are rotated often, storing both full and incremental backups. 5 off site, one onsite. This stores around 6 months of backups for us. Every 6 months we archive the important information to DVD. Drives are monitored for errors and replaced at planned 18 month intervals.

We have around 15 desktops and 10 servers being backup by this solution. It was trivial to setup. Drives are secure while in transport and storage. Its automated. Recoveries can be made very easily from the website on the linux server.

Its much easier for us than the tape backup system (Veritas) that it replaced.

The only issue is that with windows servers, it cant access open files. Our sql servers simply make a backup copy of their databases which it grabs, but exchange will cause you issues.