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What is Your Backup Policy?
higuita asks: "A few days ago, I was asked to check our backups policy, how they are being applied and to try to make it safer and more useful. Being new to the company, I started to check what is being done right now and found several problems. Since I don't have much experience with enterprise backups, what are the most used backup policies, software and global ideas about this issue? We have less than 1000 workstations (Windows and Macs), about 20 Oracle and Exchange servers (split between Windows, Solaris, and Linux), and it all needs to be backed up. Right now, we use the HP data protector with several tapes, where most things have a weekly full backup and daily incremental backups, and that most full backups are archived permanently in a safe we have for this purpose. We also have off-site storage for backups, as well. What practices and policies do Slashdot users implement for backups they perform at their office (home backups practices I am not interested in)?"
"I've investigated Veritas NetBackup and other solutions, and I'm also curious if Amanda could be better or at approximate the features offered by HP Data Protector. What backup software have you used that you found enjoyable with the least bit of hassle?
I've thought about using Dirvish to backup the user's homes to a cheap server with several HDs, and only backup to tapes once every 15 days or even once a month. They will lose their Windows permissions, but I don't think that matters much, since this is just for safekeeping the users' work. I thought about making full backups of the servers every 15 days with daily incremental backups. This way I will free up tape drives' time and gain more flexibility with the backup schedule.
I would love it if users worked off of file servers, but right now this just isn't possible. It's a planned addition that we still don't have the time to make."
I've thought about using Dirvish to backup the user's homes to a cheap server with several HDs, and only backup to tapes once every 15 days or even once a month. They will lose their Windows permissions, but I don't think that matters much, since this is just for safekeeping the users' work. I thought about making full backups of the servers every 15 days with daily incremental backups. This way I will free up tape drives' time and gain more flexibility with the backup schedule.
I would love it if users worked off of file servers, but right now this just isn't possible. It's a planned addition that we still don't have the time to make."
This will take a LOT of research on your part.
You'll need to identify each application that is being used, where its data is being stored and what type of "backup" is needed for it.
Don't forget to include "backups" of the system software. There's nothing more annoying than having to rebuild a system, and you have a backup of the data, but you cannot find the install CD.
Older *nix systems were far easier than the "modern" PC-based servers. I could backup my old Sequent box to a bootable tape. If anything went wrong, I could boot the tape and re-write the system. This is somewhat supported now on some of the PC-based servers.
Anyway, back to the "backups". Once you have the systems identified, then you'll need to look at what scenarios you'll need to plan for.
#1. Server crash.
The data on the disk is destroyed. The OS is destroyed. But the hardware is okay.
#2. The building burns down.
All of your servers are now smoking heaps of plastic. So's your desk. And all the CD's you had.
#3. 5 years from now someone wants a critical policy that was deleted 3 years ago.
I spend most of my time kicking co-workers to get them to NOT just dump data any where that has free space and to NOT just throw up a new web server without telling me.