Any Network Admins out there? Need advice on daily backup software...

[IAmAllanShore]

I'm trying to find something for a LAN of 20 computers in order to backup all of the files from those 20 computers once or twice a day.

My ideal setup would be a program to install that would run automatically once or twice a day that would send all of the files on the computer to a server located in the LAN, not an external or "website" backup where the data goes somewhere that we don't control.

Any suggestions? Price isn't an issue, but it has to work/be reliable. Probably less than a terabyte of data, so one server would probably suffice.

-Allan :gl:

 

[rick123]

I have used this
http://lifehacker.com/362062/create-your-own-cross+platform-backup-server

Its a version of linux that is similar to ubuntu. Does backups on all OS as well.

Also you would have to have this installed on a separate computer.

 

[liquidcherry]

What is your Server OS? If you use Windows Server 2003 you can use the build in backup solution

Cheers

Frank

 

[Brujah]

I would look into an rsync / rsnapshot solution.

 

[IAmAllanShore]

Thanks, folks :tu:

I am looking at rsync now, but it may be outside of my skill-set unless I am missing the "rsync for dummies" portion of it

(That, and I'm just a little weary of open-source, still. I know, I am so 1990's on this, but I still like to know there is a big company that has a lot to lose by not standing behind their product...)

The auto-backup feature on Windows Server 2003 only works to backup data off of the server, no? I am trying to backup data that is stored on individual computers, as the data we work with would drown the network if we ran it off of the server instead of on individual clients.

Still looking around - let me know if anyone else has any ideas or if the three of you have any "Allan, you are retarded" moments

-Allan :gl:

 

[snowbird]

You might want to look into some of the solutions put out by Acronis. I have used Acronis TrueImage for many of my home backup needs. But they do offer corporate solutions as well. I have found their products to be very reliable and well known.

 

[Keral_Patel]

It isn't tough if you can make a list like.....

What parts you want to backup.... at what frequency.....

EX: If you want to backup the My Documents Folders on those 20 Client side Computers.....

You can write a shell script that can do this and send the folder to the server with date etc... EX: Today's 20 folders would be stored on server something like.... "My Docs 1 12-28-2008", "My Docs 2 12-28-2008", "My Docs 3 12-28-2008"

There might be many softwares too. But for custom scenario a custom shell script is a good choice then going for a full fledged solution.

 

[liquidcherry]

Thanks, folks :tu:

I am looking at rsync now, but it may be outside of my skill-set unless I am missing the "rsync for dummies" portion of it

(That, and I'm just a little weary of open-source, still. I know, I am so 1990's on this, but I still like to know there is a big company that has a lot to lose by not standing behind their product...)

The auto-backup feature on Windows Server 2003 only works to backup data off of the server, no? I am trying to backup data that is stored on individual computers, as the data we work with would drown the network if we ran it off of the server instead of on individual clients.

Still looking around - let me know if anyone else has any ideas or if the three of you have any "Allan, you are retarded" moments

-Allan :gl:

"Allan, you are sooooo retarded" LOL j/k

You actually can "crawl" your network for the stuff you want to backup, not only the server, setup different tasks...but..that also depends on your configuration/type of network(domain/no domain, mixed OS'es on the clients, XP Pro or home etc.)

So, as long you can provide a topology of your network(the more detailed the better) we might be able to give you better advice

Cheers

frank

 

[snowbird]

It isn't tough if you can make a list like.....

What parts you want to backup.... at what frequency.....

EX: If you want to backup the My Documents Folders on those 20 Client side Computers.....

You can write a shell script that can do this and send the folder to the server with date etc... EX: Today's 20 folders would be stored on server something like.... "My Docs 1 12-28-2008", "My Docs 2 12-28-2008", "My Docs 3 12-28-2008"

There might be many softwares too. But for custom scenario a custom shell script is a good choice then going for a full fledged solution.

When he said "backup all of the files from those 20 computers" I was thinking he meant more along the line of a full system backup. When you are doing full system backups, backup images are probably the best way to go in my opinion unless I missunderstood what he was looking for. But from experience, a school or small business would normally get 1 computer exactly the way they want it after installing windows, linux, etc. Then you can use a product like Acronis TrueImage or Ghost to backup that system and deploy the image over the other 19 systems. Then whatever backups you make after that can be based on whatever changes were made on the 20 systems. Maybe you will only want to backup documents and such. This way if there is a hard drive failure, it takes far less time to restore an image instead of reinstalling windows or whatever from scratch and whatever software you had installed.

 

[NewYorkBum]

We use BackupExec from Symantec (ex Veritas BackupExec). I use it mostly for servers only, about 15 of them and it does pretty good job.
I have to mention that i use it in conjunction with a tape loader (Quantum Super loader) to backup servers over the network during the off hours.

http://www.symantec.com/business/products/family.jsp?familyid=backupexec

I have not used the backup exec for desktops edition but from what i saw (options and test run) it has pretty decent list of options.
PM me if you need a help on server side with it.

 

[CrazyTech]

Local backups in the form I think you desire are a bit outside of my area, but I think I know enough to contribute some information. I've heard good things about Acronis, as far as commercial solutions go. Otherwise, if you really want to get dirty yet save some funds, go Rsync: http://samba.anu.edu.au/rsync/

(That, and I'm just a little weary of open-source, still. I know, I am so 1990's on this, but I still like to know there is a big company that has a lot to lose by not standing behind their product...)

I actually did a project on this very issue for Digital Library collections. To shorten up my presentation, think of it this way; with open source software you have a community of developers that develop the project because they need it as much as you. In other words, they have a stake to see that their product works. A commercial entity stops once it's not profitable, period. The internet is here today as we know it primarily because of open source, all the way back to GML and SGML.

Rsync itself is pretty popular and a lot of hosting companies go this route. I trust it.