Type of storage/backup solution
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DWillms
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Type of storage/backup solution
Storage management, Storage products and equipment, NAS, Storage servers, SAN, iSCSI, Backup & recovery, Windows storage, Online Backup
Hey everyone,
I just started with a medium sized business doing IT work, and they have asked me to research types of backup solutions. At this point we are running a server that holds about 350 GB of data, and we have 2 remote offsite locations which they would also like to back up as well. The total approximate size would be around 500GB, but they'd like to start off with 1TB and have the option for expandability as well. Right now they are using tape backups, and I believe would like to get rid of that somehow, but the data would also have to be stored offsite as well somewhere, in case of some sort of disaster at the main office. In the small bit of research I've done, I think for this size of storage would a NAS device not be the best option, running Windows Storage Server 2003 or similar, and then maybe the possibility of a second NAS running offsite or at one of the other locations. If you ran both of these NAS's with RAID 1 or RAID 5, that would give you multiple data redundancy, and also offsite storage, and from the prices I've been able to find, it seems like that would be much cheaper than a similar SAN solution. If the company did go with something like a SAN device, they would most likely go with iSCSI, not Fiber Channel, just for the reduced cost. Of course a third option would be something like an automated tape loader, but if they want to get away from tape storage, that may not be the best option. Also, what kind of companies provide offsite storage services such as this? What would services like that cost?

Thanks a lot for your help!

Edit: Just a little more info, we're not moving to Vista any time soon, moving completely away from tape isn't a necessity, so something like a D2D2T solution could work as well. Is this size of backup worth going to a SAN or not? I don't see the reason if they will be using iSCSI anyways.
ASKED: May 3 2007  3:27 PM GMT
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tmac24
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I am actually in the process of evaluating products myself. We have decided to go with a product from storevault the StoreVault S500 . It is perfect for mid size companies. It is a iscsi SAN that can function as a NAS or a SAN. It has the capabilities to add or subtract storage on the fly with out disrupting live data. It can take up to 255 snapshots before re-writing. Drag and drop restores. Very easy to setup and administrate. And it is very affordable. We had budgeted for a SAN storage solution...about 110k. We are spending only 60k for this solution and getting about 24tb all the functionality of a large SAN solution and more. That includes 4 chassis with 6TB and all the software. They have different scalable modules. Either 250gb sata drives or 500gb. $$$ Depends on how many drives and the raid config

Here is a link if you are interested
http://www.storevault.com/
Last Answered: May 3 2007  3:54 PM GMT by tmac24   0 pts.
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marcola   0 pts.  |   May 4 2007  8:48AM GMT

Well I will keep it short and sweet … Investigate the HP AIO600 ro AIO1200 for your iSCSI storage and Acronis Ture Image for your backup solution.

The AIO600 comes in 1.5 TB and 3 TB models and is pre-loaded with Widows 2003 Storage Server and SAN management software. It also has Wizards to create VSS, Exchange and SQL Server shares through an iSCSI connector, move the databases and reconfigure the servers to look for the data on the iSCSI LUN. It is also very affordable. The 1.5 goes for around $6k.

The Acronis will be about $600 per server for the full suite but will do the following:

1. You can create a secure zone for OS backups or data backups that will reside in a hidden partition and you can activate recovery at boot (press F11 and you can restore the entire image or just one file or mount and edit the sotred image.)

2. You can backup to an FTP server which can reside offsite. All backup options offer Full, Incremental and Differential backups so you can synchronize to opposing storage servers.

3. You can schedule backups for a groups of servers and have them backup to multiple storage appliances.

You can mix and match all of the features. In other words you can backup a machine to a secure zone, a SAN or NAS running the Arconis backup server module and a tape drive all in the same scheduled task.There is a ton more that the software does but I hit some of the really neat features.

The Acronis link is:
 <a href="http://www.acronis.com/smb" title="http://www.acronis.com/smb" target="_blank">http://www.acronis.com/smb</a>

The HP AIO link is:
 <a href="http://h18006.www1.hp.com/products/storageworks/all-in-one/index.html" title="http://h18006.www1.hp.com/products/storageworks/all-in-one/index.html" target="_blank">http://h18006.www1.hp.com/products/stora…</a>

You can research the different flavors..

 

HonestTom1   0 pts.  |   May 14 2007  10:57AM GMT

D2D2T could work well for you. You didn’t mention what backup software you are using. Some support D2D better than others.

A NAS box as a backup target with a locally attached tape device would ensure rapid backup and recovery and also give the benefit of removability of tape. This NAS could also be used to replicate backed up data to other locations.

You could look at Adaptec SNAP as the NAS, most models have integrated SCSI for attachment of tape. Performance over Windows Storage Server powered NAS boxes is v. good as it’s Linux based. They have a range of replication software (EDR) and work very well with Bakbone NetVault.

If you are using Commvault, Backup Exec, ArcServe or most other backup packages and don’t want to change you could use a Windows powered NAS box as the backup server and stream to locally attached tape and use off the shelf replication software to replicate to other locations.

 
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