Backing up 4TB of data?

We're considering adding a 3.5TB Apple XserveRAID to our network - my question is, how the hell would you guys tackle the issue of having to take a backup of the data 'off-site'?

We're looking at a 12-tape LTO3 autoloader, but the idea of a backup set being spread over 12 tapes scares the mumblies out of me.

I'm thinking about a few Lacie BigDisks that I can carry to/from work every weekend, but what automated backup software would support chucking as much data as possible on one disk, and then moving onto the next etc etc?

Is there a better way??


Cheers for your thoughts,
S.

Don't think you'd have enough hours in the day or night to be able to make a complete backup each and every night. You really need a backup strategy. Typically you could/would have anything from 3 to 6 volumes, each volume consisting of a weeks backups with a cycling of the off site backup included in there. Over the weekend a complete backup would be taken and then Monday night to Friday night an incremental (only the changed files) would be taken. The cycle would then repeat with the last to last weeks tapes taken off site. You'd also need to include the lifecycle of tapes and phase in new tapes as and when you think they are likely to become unreliable and 1 last point always make sure you can recover the data before deciding to commit and continue. The above is just general info, would need to know a lot more in order to advise fully.

The tapes should all fit into a magazine that can be handled as a single unit when shipped to off-site storage.

multiple options, using tape as a backup.

LTO drives with an auto loader - take incrimentals and ship full backups off site on a weekly/monthly basis.

Volume based backup, I'd doubt you'll be using that whole storage as one lun, so break it up and shedule backups to tape so eg: volume 1 fits onto 1 tape, volume 2 fits onto 4 tapes etc manage it like that.

Disk option. Buy some crappy SATA disks of high capacity and backup the array to them for a local copy then just backup to tape from the local copy at any point during the day

tons of options, all with $$$$ assigned to them.

think it through - plan it out and impliment it. Just just through kit at it, oh and forward plan - eg: make sure your backup plan will work if you needed/wanted to add a second X serve to your network

^^ what he said :)

we don't back up our SAN as a single unit - in fact we treat san attached drives as any other drives and let backup exec back up the attached drives with its associated server.
Currently we use an LOT2 auto loader , but I think we're moving to a DISK-DISK-TAPE strategy where we'll run backups to a staging area during the production backup window - then stream to tape offline.

Spot on Moby,

this is becoming more popular with larger environments and with shared platorm (CDS Disk) san.

BCV or snapshot technology which is a more formal version of this approach is well used in the industry.

Everything is about needs though.

If you need is full restores quicky - then your stratergy will differ from full array restore over a day.

One think to consider is get your priorities/requirments agreed and signed off before deciding a stratergy - no point paying out for a load of disks to act as a proxy BCV if you don't have a strict recovery time or your not required to restore at a file based level (just as an example)

Delving a little deeper , what kind of data are you wanting to store on this kit ?

If you have a really big budget - buy a second xserve & some san routers , then get replicating over IP :)

The data is an important point

eg: 2 TB of data could be 1,0000000 small files of a couple of K or 2 files of 1 TB each - that will effect your backup stratergy in a big way, and again coupled with your requirments. 4 TB isn't a mass of data buts its enough to warrent putting thought/planning and longevity into the mix as well as budget which is normally the driver behind any business decision.

Does the X Serve have a replication or mirror technology at an array level such as SRDF (just for example) I've never really worked with the X serve.

we had a play with our new hundred-grand disk system today. it's got green lights on the front!

tape is the old favorite for any type of backup (because it's easy to move off-site, and nothing beats the bandwidth of an 18-wheeler full of tapes) but if you have the budget, i'd pay serious consideration to a pure duplication option - which is more or less what Moby is suggesting