I manage our University's backups and we are running out of our backup window for the weekend. Here is what we have:
Administrative email: 400 GB
Student email: 500 GB
Student DB: 400 GB
University Department Shares: 500 GB
Various other servers (Windows, Linus, Sun OS): 1.5 TB
We use HP Data Protector 6.0 to backup all of the above over the weekend.
Administrative email is backed up after business hours during weekdays only. only kept 3 days on vls with no dump to tape.
Student database is put on vls and dumped to tape. we keep it on the vls for 2 days for fast recovery if the need arises.
Department shares are backed up to vls and dumped to tape. Kept on vls for a week for fast recovery. Differentials run nightly
The 'various other servers' are dumped in 750 GB batches to vls then dumped to tape. The data on the vls is cleared after successful copy to make room for the next 750 GB batch of data. Speeds over our network directly to our msl 4 tape library is too slow for some of our older physical servers to go directly to tape. So we dump to vls first.
Our backups are running long! We start at 7 p.m. on Friday. End of processing is around 3 a.m. Monday. and if any one process fails, usually there is insufficient space on the VLS remaining to allow anything else to complete. Yes, the differential backups we run each night over the weekdays can be applied to the previous weekend's full backups, but we're vulnerable for all of Friday and Monday's data. Not a good situation.
In addition to these, we run images of all our Windows servers using Acronis 10. The product has been a nightmare but seems to be finally working (although there are strange errors appearing in the log that their support team can't explain). Their support team has been horrendous for us, even wiping out months of configurations and leaving us in the lurch for as much as 3 weeks.
We've looked at all the big names: Avamar, Symantec, Comm Vault, etc. All are exceptionally expensive for the money that's available.
Currently looking at NovaStor Data Center. Waiting for the sales rep to call us.
Any thoughts or assistance would be very well appreciated,
Tom P.
