What is Your Backup Policy? 124
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."
Focus on the systems. (Score:4, Interesting)
You'll need to identify each application that is being used, where its data is being stored and what type of "backup" is needed for it.
Don't forget to include "backups" of the system software. There's nothing more annoying than having to rebuild a system, and you have a backup of the data, but you cannot find the install CD.
Older *nix systems were far easier than the "modern" PC-based servers. I could backup my old Sequent box to a bootable tape. If anything went wrong, I could boot the tape and re-write the system. This is somewhat supported now on some of the PC-based servers.
Anyway, back to the "backups". Once you have the systems identified, then you'll need to look at what scenarios you'll need to plan for.
#1. Server crash.
The data on the disk is destroyed. The OS is destroyed. But the hardware is okay.
#2. The building burns down.
All of your servers are now smoking heaps of plastic. So's your desk. And all the CD's you had.
#3. 5 years from now someone wants a critical policy that was deleted 3 years ago.
I spend most of my time kicking co-workers to get them to NOT just dump data any where that has free space and to NOT just throw up a new web server without telling me.
Re: Make sure offsite IS OFFSITE (Score:3, Interesting)
Fire, Flood, Mud, and Earthquake
In which case, the best case for off site backup is out of state, like Las Vegas or something. This also gives you an excellent excuse for monthly road trips to "check out the quality of the backups"
That said, for simple off site backups, solutions like MOZY.com do just fine for a small small business. Otherwise, something like LiveVault.com is recommended. There are plenty of vendors out there.
Another thing is the insurance for replacements for each of your software media. Things like MS can be done in bulk via several MSDN subscriptions, a bargain even if you never develop anything. (300 bucks get you copies of everything MS is currently shipping, along with extra CDKeys for many items). In fact insurance for the media and other details is a very good idea.
It's very nice if the backup facility is also located at the bottom of a retired ICBM missile silo, or something similar.
Mod parent up (Score:2, Interesting)
Servers - how long can they be down? Do you have replacement plans in case your data center gets hit by the next earthquake/hurricane/fill_in_the_disaster. Having tapes off site means nothing if you don't have hardware for restore. Can you get Hardware X if everyone else is looking for X, maybe Y is the new standard and you're application needs X version 1.2.
Desktops, are files on a server or local? Do you have a standard desktop that can be rolled out and copies of the server. Can the desktops go 2 weeks, but you need the servers back in 12 hours. You need a plan before things get ugly.
Speaking of tapes, as mentioned you need to periodically check your restore. Backups don't matter, it's whether or not you can restore your data that counts. How often, incremental or full. Be careful shipping tapes. Since 9/11 I've noticed tapes shipped with certain carriers have read issues at the remote site. Is this X-rays on cargo or just a bad run of tapes?
Re:Use an enterprise commercial solution (Score:3, Interesting)
It's really pretty darned incredible. One command, and your TSM environment is rebuilt. We use the DR capabilities multiple times per year. Works great.