How do you backup your raid?

[myth]

I have been realy trying to find some software that will be able to backup my two raptors in a raid 0 array, but I can't find any. I was hoping to use an external HD! Any ideas?

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduc...144-213&DEPA=1

I liked this but I'd need to find some software!

[directhex]

use RAID 1 for backups, that's what it's there for?

[Moby-Dick]

RAID isn't really a suitable backup "excuse" ( even with fault tolerancy ) - from an enterprise point of view at least.

If you really want to back your stuff up , why not consider a tape drive ? or one of the many online backup services available.

[myth]

I was hoping to be able to make a backup of the raid array and partition, so when I screw up windows I can simply restore it.... But I cant find any software that will back up raids.. Errrrrr... I'd love to be able to store it on an external drive but once again I cant find the software....

[Moby-Dick]

the array is presented to the OS as a drive , so just back that up / ghost it to another drive.

[myth]

I tried norton ghost 2003 and It did'nt work on raids.... Do you know of any software that suports raid? Norton would make a image but was unable to restore it

[Moby-Dick]

you'd need ghost enterprise for that probably - what about driveimage ?

[Atomic]

Hmm I was pretty sure our version of ghost at work will handle a RAID configuration ok...

[Moby-Dick]

chance are that would be enterprise though ?

unless ghost has a problem with SATA drivers for the boot disk ?

[Saracen]

use RAID 1 for backups, that's what it's there for?

I agree with Moby - RAID (of ANY type) is not a suitable alternative to a backup if the data contained on it is important.

Why?

Well, there's the time I had power supply blow and take out the mobo (but not CPU or RAM), video card (a brand-new GF3 just before they actually became available ) a DVD-RAM drive and ALL FOUR HARD DRIVES in a RAID-5 system. Had that contained the backup .....

That system contained critical work for customers (on tight deadlines), my commission tracking system and a variety of accounting and other records that I'm legally obliged to keep.

Thank goodness for tape backups and DVD-RAM disks.

Another example, suppose you use RAID 1 for backups and get the machine nicked in a burglary? Your backup just got nicked with it.

A backup strategy needs to be related to the circumstances, degree of risk and the consequences if the worst happens, so it's VERY difficult to describe a one-size-fits-all solution.

Personally, Myth, I use a two-stage strategy. Data is organised into :-

1) Critical, can't afford to lose it
2) Don't want to lose it but not disastrous if I do

The Category 1) stuff gets backed up twice-daily to tape (a Tandberg SLR6 drive). But this is a £600 drive and only takes about 20GB. This is located on my server. Each workstation also has tape backup (a collection of varous spec DAT drives, 1 is DDS-3, the others are DDS-2) and they do daily backups of the DATA sections of those machines. Then I use Ghost and a DVD burner to backup system installations. Most of the Ghost images are also on a network hard drive.

The category 2) stuff tends to get backed up to DVD-RW as and when I get around to it.


Incidentally, if the backed-up data is REALLY important (as mine is) do not just take backup after backup and ASSUME they are OK. Periodically, do a test restore (obvioulsy not over-writing the live system). It is possible to find, especially with tape, that the system reports the backup as OK but it is actually not. When you NEED it is not the time to find this out. Check it periodically.

[Paul Adams]

We've used Norton Ghost 2003 (and the previous version) to take images of the servers at work, every single one has a RAID array of some kind, and it's not the Enterprise Edition.

Were you opting to backup the disk or the partition?
I've always used the partition option, figuring it might be easier to restore to a bigger disk than if a disk one was done.

As Moby said, could it be that your disks are not visible to Ghost outside of a Windows OS due to a driver problem?


Edit:
And RAID is not for backups at all - it's for resilience and high availability (and speed if you stripe the data).
A proper backup strategy implies that you can restore the entire system, portions of it, or individual files that become corrupt or deleted - either to the same disk or a completely separate one.

[Bleek]

As stated before don't rely on RAID for backup, especially for buisiness related machines. No backup on a RAID machine is just lazy and stupid.

[myth]

I was hoping to use ghost to creat a backup image of the whole array, partition and all! so when I losse windows I can simple restore the partition... I have tried some programs but most dont like my raid...

[Bleek]

Be wary of Ghost, we have found quite a high failure rate on our images for some reason. For example I took two images one after the other, one worked and one restored but didn't work. Not good.

However!

I currently use removable firewire maxtor drives for backup of the RAID array using Veritas Backup Exec (substitute for any good backup software), works a treat and very affordable.

[Butuz]

If you have Windows 2000 or XP You can back up your whole system to another Disk by using the built in MS Backup program, just make sure when you tick the C and D drives for backup, tick the System State box too as that saves your registry, drivers, settings, logon accounts, etc etc. Then all you do is tell msbackup to back up to E:\Backup.bkf where E:\ is your removable drive or whatever your gonna use and your hey presto.

When you restore after a full system faliure, as long as you have your raid setup partitioned in the same manner as before, eg as long as you have a C: and a D: drive big enough for the data to be restored, the restore will work fine. You can even put 2 different identical disks in and restore the whole system onto a nice new big raid aray using this method, i've done it and it works as long as you keep your hardware (mobo, raid card, gfx, sound, etc) the same.

Butuz

[myth]

Be wary of Ghost, we have found quite a high failure rate on our images for some reason. For example I took two images one after the other, one worked and one restored but didn't work. Not good.

However!

I currently use removable firewire maxtor drives for backup of the RAID array using Veritas Backup Exec (substitute for any good backup software), works a treat and very affordable.

Sounds good!

http://www.atomicpark.com/productDet...x?prodId=17489

Saw what! "very affordable"