Best Backup Solution: Moving away from tapes with full disaster recovery

Part I: Identifying the need
Originally Posted By Joshua Shackelford on Successful Thinkers Meetup

What do you need?
When looking at backup systems, there are 3 types of scenarios we are trying to meet.  We are looking to archive our data, recover from the occasional oops, and then of course the ever so important, disaster recovery.  While archival needs vary from holding data for a couple of weeks, a few years, 10 years or even forever, everyone needs to be able to recover from the occasional oops and, the heaven forbid, disaster.  Through out all three of these cases we are looking to maintain business continuity.

Archival
I won’t go into much depth here as most people understand what their needs are for archiving data, and tend to just throw a bunch of hard drives at the situation.  Often archival needs are dictated by governing policies, and you are most likely already doing something about this.  After I go into more detail about file recovery, and disaster recovery, you’ll get a better idea of how archival fits into this whole scheme.

 

Oops! I deleted a file
We’ve all accidentally deleted a file and needed to recover it, or had users that have deleted files and needed to get them back.  A solid backup system will enable you to locate and recover a deleted file quickly.  If you’ve ever worked with a tape backup system, then you know that this isn’t quick.  First you have to locate the file in the backup application, then find the correct tape (which hopefully the tape’s physical label matches the system label) so that you can finally reload the original file.  This can be a pain in the butt.  Wouldn’t it be nicer if you could just click on it to restore it?

Oh No!  We lost the entire server!
In a major disaster, your whole business is at risk.  Whether it was a fire, a flood, or something more likely to occur, such as failing hardware, possibly from over heating or just wearing out, you are in a position that you need to recover your entire server.  What most people don’t realize is that even if you have a full back up of every file on your server, and all of the configurations, you will still be down for at least a day.  You see, before you can restore the files, you must first rebuild the server.  Reinstall the operating system, reinstall every single program on the server, and then begin reloading configurations and files.  If all of these backups are on tape, you are looking at 48-72 hours until you are fully running.

Finding a solution
There are many different backup options out there today.  If you are just starting this research process, you will be reading about hardware, software, virtualization, recovery… on… and on… and on…  Trying to sort out which software you need, which hardware it goes with, and then how do you recover if something goes wrong.  Finally you will settle on a solution.  Mostly likely either a tape solution paired with Backup Exex or ArcServe, an online backup like Mozy or Carbonite, or possibly a cloning application such as Acronis or Shadow Protect.  The best backup solution is somewhere in this mix allowing for a full recover in just moments, quick and simple file recovery, and the ability to take your backups offsite.

Please continue to part II, where the best backup solution is described.

Originally Posted By Joshua Shackelford on Successful Thinkers Meetup