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."

just what ever you do make sure offsite IS OFFSITE

[RobertLTux]

don't make the mistake that one guy did
the office was in the North Tower --- The "offsite backup" was in the South Tower

oops
i would suggest minimum different zip codes different time zones would be best
other than that Grand father > Father >Son GF gets sent offsite

My backup strategy

[Millenniumman]

My backup strategy consists of hoping that my hard drive doesn't fail before I get a new computer/hard drive. It's worked so far, even with a laptop.

best way to backup

[novastar123]

the best way ive found yet is to back everything up to /dev/null its incredibally fast and saves you on storage space for backup tapes.

Oh shit! Oh shit! What do we do now?!

[SlappyBastard]

Please God... please say someone took the project home on CD, or we're fucked!

Don't just look in the rear-view mirrors...

[tverbeek]

...actually turn your upper body around, so you can look in the direction you're driving.

Think of the children!