Design a backup system - HOW

EdinburghGary

EdinburghGary

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Gary
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Hi Guys,

Here's what I want.

IN THE SHOP.
  • Something which can hold between 4 and 10 hard drives, and is hot swappable.
  • It should offer a complete backup solution if possible, mirror a folder on my LOCAL machine
  • In the event if a mistake on the local machine mirror, and files being deleted, it should have a TIME MACHINE STYLE copy on a third drive

Ditto, for at home, then I can taker ONE drive between the shop and home, and have multiple backups.


HELP :D

Gary.
 
19" rack-mount server with 10 hot swappable bays in a RAID 5 configuration? Check a well known auction site for some good deals on this; I recently picked up a 2U server with some quality specs for £50.

Then all you would have to do is use some utlity to mirror a local folder onto the array.

I'm not sure if that's what you're looking for, sorry if not :p
 
Depending on budget a Netapp system would be ideal although probably overkill :)

Runs raid 4+1 write anywhere system with 99.9% redundandancy, hot swappable and can partition the drives for what you need with the ability to link multiple OS's to it as well so if your running PC's and MAC's everyones happy :)

Very easy to use and setup and acts as a great heater in the winter months lol...
 
Better startnig point after my last thread...

Rather than the number of disks what amount of storage do you require (taking nito account future growth)

What type of machines will you be linking to it PC's, MAC's etc and how many will be writing to it at the same time?

What Backup s/w are you familiar with?

Budget...

Will you be backing up the storage device to tape as well ?

Do you want duplication for offsite storage (ie a HD backup to remove from the RAID for extra redundancy?

There are a load of options open to you but it really depends on how safe you want to be in terms of backups and how much you want to spend!
 
Drobo box by far. You can stuff whatever sized disks in it you like. Unlike RAID they don't have to be the same size or speed. Failing that a nice Buffalo NAS box would do the job too, just map a drive over to the workstations and you should be good to go. :)
 
a drobo is all well and good but going on the OP's spec youll need 2 plus some sort of other drive to transfer data between sites, plus sync software....

a budget and capacity (and what platform) would be required to offer any suitable options.

edit - can we also know the internet connectivity at both sites pease?
 
ohood said:
They're expensive as hell, but a Drobo would probably be a good choice (they look the business too.)

http://www.drobo.com/
Click to expand...

another vote for drobo - I've got one - peace of mind! Not expensive for what they are/do - upwardly expandle - mine is 5TB but could be larger.
 
storage at each site is the easy bit, its the transfer of data between thats going to be the fun bit..

when you say the budget is "negotiable" can you nail it down a little bit, the sky is the limit with this kinda stuff lol
 
Have a look at Symantec Backup Exec and stick a FTP server at each location with enough storage, backup to local ftp server first then then ftp to the remote site - all fully automated using symantec . I'm currently working on a solution based around this to support 3000 mobile workers :shake:
 
Dogfish_magnet said:
Have a look at Symantec Backup Exec and stick a FTP server at each location with enough storage, backup to local ftp server first then then ftp to the remote site - all fully automated using symantec . I'm currently working on a solution based around this to support 3000 mobile workers :shake:
Click to expand...

i was thinking of something similar (minus backup exec.. :gag: ), would be limited by ADSL upload speeds from the shop though depending on how much data would be added incrementally..
 
neil_g said:
i was thinking of something similar (minus backup exec.. :gag: ), would be limited by ADSL upload speeds from the shop though depending on how much data would be added incrementally..
Click to expand...

It should be OK as your only backing up bit level changes and it runs constantly as a bandwidth aware app - if you did the initial sync with both servers on the same site it would make things easier....whats wrong with backup exec ? - we run it on several thousand servers throughout Europe and Asia
 
Dogfish_magnet said:
It should be OK as your only backing up bit level changes and it runs constantly as a bandwidth aware app - if you did the initial sync with both servers on the same site it would make things easier....whats wrong with backup exec ? - we run it on several thousand servers throughout Europe and Asia
Click to expand...

theres nothing wrong with backup exec other than i dont like it.. lol (i should of added a " :p " in after the gag smiley) but it is extremely functional and would work well. it just wouldnt be top of my list :)

initial sync with both servers on the same site would be a must. id still be a little concerned with bandwidth, but i think internet transfer is going to be the way forward in this case. youll struggle to find a 6TB transferable drive to take between sites.

as for storage hardware that'll depend on budget..
 
Depending on how much storage you are after a dedicated server could do the trick with a scheduled task to FTP the data over to your server, then it's also an off site backup and in the cloud so to speak, meaning you can just FTP from anywhere and download it again.

My dedicated server is with 1&1 and I have a 500Gb hard disk for £70 per month.
 
That sounds like an awful lot of data - in excess of 800 shots a day?!
 
awp said:
That sounds like an awful lot of data - in excess of 800 shots a day?!
Click to expand...

It is a lot, but yesterday we did 7 shoots, today 3, I shoot uncrompressed RAW only, but create a JPEG backup on the computer when I download the shots, also HD slideshows are a few gig each, it adds up very quickly....

G.
 
if it was me id be looking at Windows small business/storage servers at each site with either VPN or FTP backups/transfers, potentially id be looking at getting SDSL at your shop site also (if youre pushing from the shop to your home then you just need the bandwidth on the shop upload, the home download speed should be capable).

if youre wanting hotswapable, 6TB+, expandable, fully redundant storage boxes they aint gonna be cheap..
 
the drobos may be usuable but one thing that always stopped me buying a drobo is the lack of LAN.

but that doesnt help the fact that gary needs 1 at each site (probably a drobopro) and still requires a machine to run each one and then a solution to transfer data between sites.. ;)

gary - you sound like our directors.. :p trying to get a 70k SAN upgrade through them was interesting, i think they suggested your string and tape approach.. :lol:
 
Drobos are expensive, but good, and can't do what you need automagically right out of the box, will need extra technology or server or manual processes.

A self build file server is probably your best bet.

motherboard 100
OS hard drive £30
processor 50
ram 50
psu + case 50
hard drives = amount of 1.5 * Tbs that you want, minus 1.5. (ie if you want 6gb usable storage, buy 5 * 1.5 = 7.5TB) 1.5TB drives are the best £/gb at the moment. Raid 5 gives you [capacity of drive] * ([number of drives] - 1)
windows server 2003 / 2008 / windows 7 license £?

set up:

office and home file servers, all drives raided in raid 5 as one logical disk. Store your files on this instead of your editing computer. Link the two by gigabit ethernet.
robocopy set as a scheduled task to sync new files from office to home file server each night starting 8pm or whatever. Do large transfers manually with a external hard drive.
Set up windows 'previous versions' or buy any of a range of backup suites (sure someone can help) to work on this drive to handle revisions and deletions. Set this to work on both office and home computers OR set the robocopy sync to be one directional (ie deletions in studio don't get mirrored at home, just on the office server)
 
itsdavedotnet said:
Drobos are expensive, but good, and can't do what you need automagically right out of the box, will need extra technology or server or manual processes.

A self build file server is probably your best bet.

motherboard 100
OS hard drive £30
processor 50
ram 50
psu + case 50
hard drives = amount of 1.5 * Tbs that you want, minus 1.5. 1.5TB drives are the best £/gb at the moment. Raid 5 gives you [capacity of drive] * ([number of drives] - 1)
windows server 2003 / 2008 / windows 7 license £?

set up:

local and remote file servers, all drives raided in raid 5 as one logical disk.
robocopy set as a scheduled task to sync new files from office to home file server each night starting 8pm or whatever. Do large transfers manually with a external hard drive.
Set up windows 'previous versions' to work on this drive.
Click to expand...

When can you install it :D
 
itsdavedotnet said:
Drobos are expensive, but good, and can't do what you need automagically right out of the box, will need extra technology or server or manual processes.

A self build file server is probably your best bet.

motherboard 100
OS hard drive £30
processor 50
ram 50
psu + case 50
hard drives = amount of 1.5 * Tbs that you want, minus 1.5. (ie if you want 6gb usable storage, buy 5 * 1.5 = 7.5TB) 1.5TB drives are the best £/gb at the moment. Raid 5 gives you [capacity of drive] * ([number of drives] - 1)
windows server 2003 / 2008 / windows 7 license £?

set up:

office and home file servers, all drives raided in raid 5 as one logical disk. Store your files on this instead of your editing computer. Link the two by gigabit ethernet.
robocopy set as a scheduled task to sync new files from office to home file server each night starting 8pm or whatever. Do large transfers manually with a external hard drive.
Set up windows 'previous versions' or buy any of a range of backup suites (sure someone can help) to work on this drive to handle revisions and deletions. Set this to work on both office and home computers OR set the robocopy sync to be one directional (ie deletions in studio don't get mirrored at home, just on the office server)
Click to expand...

good suggestion :) only snag i can think of is the limitation of SATA ports on the motherboard. otherwise this would probably the the most cost effective route.
 
neil_g said:
good suggestion :) only snag i can think of is the limitation of SATA ports on the motherboard. otherwise this would probably the the most cost effective route.
Click to expand...

yep, you will need to drop the cash on a fairly nice motherboard with a decent amount of raid enabled sata ports. just trying to find one with loads...

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/145748 is the standard really..
 
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