I have been backing up our SBS 2003 server and data via the DLT 40/80 tapes.....lets just say that I am tired of messing with tapes...

...I have an option to purchase a networked HDD that I can place off-site....the place that I would place it would be able to obtain a max transfer (up and down) of 15 Mb/s....

...those of you who are more familiar with transferring of data....would this be an acceptable transfer rate for backups that are between 40 and 100 GB of size? and would this be a rate that could complete my backup job over-night (8 hrs)?

...if your answer is "yes".....are there any networked HDD's you would recommend over another? (200-300 GB)

 

Way I figure it....(and I'm probably off)

@15 megabits per second it would take you about 16 hours to transfer 100Gigabytes of data. That is one fast connection too considering a T1 runs at about 1.5megabits per second.

I'm looking at the following solution.

Disk to disk backup in house and then transferring the disk backup either offsite or backing it up via tape.

 

We have 30 T1 lines running into the room that my server sits....so...in theory....I should be able to get 15 Mb/s internally....

 

Well you certainly have the bandwidth I just dont think you have the time.

I'd dump it to an local SAN first then transfer. Lets assume the d2d takes 3 hours to be conservative and you start your backup at say 9pm. The online transfer begins at midnight and would run clean thru till 3pm the next day transferring data.

Problem I see (if I did the math right) is that you are going to be sucking up to 10 T1s during the day to do that transfer. Can you dedicate that bandwidth?



BTW... I'm using SNap Server drives for network storage and their performance is decent.

 

Well....as of today....yes...I could probably sacrifice the T1's.......as of tomorrow....no.....I guess it would be quite a bit of bandwidth being wasted...

My other option is to purchase two USB (or Firewire) HDD's and transfer them to the drive instead of the tapes....it just seems to me that the tape back up is SLOW and I can only go to 40GB per tape (I dont want to compress).....not to mention the fact that I hate having to mess with tapes on a machine that is locked in our phone room.....

 

A. I think we are the only two geeks on right now.

B. I have the same problem right now. I'm going to go the same route basically.

Disk backup of the network each night (cheap) then transfer to tape (still the most reliably secure method IMO) afterwards it goes home with me. I keep 2 weeks worth of tapes and 6 monthly tapes that are cycled.

Its a real pain but I guess it is worth it.

 

What about me? I'm just feeling inadequate cause my server room only haqs 7 T1s.

 

Sorry UC...you were so wrapped up in that gay cowboy thing I figured you were too busy to read this thread.

 

Vader:

I am just at the point that I am so tired of messing with tapes and making sure I have the right one for the day....not to mention the fact that actually having to FIND info on a tape is a pain too....

...I am just trying to find a way to finish my backup in a manner that requires next to NO human interaction....

UC:

...it is ok....we only have 30 T1's because we are our own phone company and provide DSL service to our tenants....so we kinda need the extra bandwidth....

 

Nothing keeps me occupied like gay cowboys

BTW, I can't even get my tape backups working right, network backup is asking too much

 

no one can its just that the good IT people can hide it

 

I'm hiding it well. Nobody else knows our 2nd server is backing up on the same tape day after day after day while 8 new blank tapes just sit ontop of the rack.

I'd do something about it but it's cold in there.

 

I have 5 fresh tapes sitting on my shelf for when I exceed 40 GB (currently at 38 GB)....so...you can see why I am looking for another solution before I have to double the amount of tapes I have to F with...

 

Are they all data T's?

I have a 3TB Snap appliance in my server room, that might be something to think about for offsite storage.

4 Hot swappable HD's in RAID5 (1U chassis each) x 3 tied together with "matrix cables", for lack of a better term.