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Advice appreciated

UlrikJPS
Level 3

Hi everybody.

I would very much like to have some advice on a backup strategy. I need to backup our companys data.

The data consists of this:

15 VMs (VMware and virtual center) incl. SQL 2005/2008 and Exchange 2010 servers and later on also SharePoint 2010. Guest OS is both Windows 2003 R2, 2008 and 2008 R2.

4 physical servers incl. the Backup Exec server itself

Exchange 2010 Database Availability Group with 1 database (2 mailbox role servers)

Backup Exec remote Windows agent will be installed on all Windows servers.

I plan for using a Deduplication storage folder on the BE media server and maybe also the Continuous Protection Server and agent for backing up Exchange.

Furthermore I need duplication to tape each day/night.

My thoughs is going towards a 3 step job:

1. Backup VMware virtual machines (client dedup)

2. Backup Exchange 2010 DAG via CPS (can I use dedup for this?)

3. Backup the physical servers (media server dedup)

But when to duplicate to tape? After each of the jobs? I need to have Full weekly, Full monthly, Full Quarterly, Full Yearly and then daily incremental on tape.

What about media sets? I must have daily data for at least 2 weeks.

What is your opinion on setting up the right solution here?

Best regards

Ulrik Andreassen

3 REPLIES 3

UlrikJPS
Level 3

BUMP.

No suggestions at all??

There must be administrators out there having a setup like this...

CraigV
Moderator
Moderator
Partner    VIP    Accredited

Hi Ulrik,

 

Just a note here...the minute you duplicate deduped data to tape, it will reinflate it to the original size...

Generally you would look at duplicating to tape straight after your job finishes. However, with 3 separate jobs, you'll end up queueing your jobs. Unless you have a library with multiple tape drives (for which you will need an LEO for every tape drive over 1).

Generally, for different retention periods, you would create different media sets. So create a media set for Weekly, Monthly etc. You're able to set your retention periods accordingly, and ensure that your tapes are not incorrectly overwritten.

Hywel_Mallett
Level 6
Certified

When to duplicate to tape? If you want nightly incrementals on tape, you'll need to duplicate every night.

You'll want 5 media sets (at least):

  • Full weekly - OPP 3 weeks
  • Full monthly - OPP 2 months
  • Full quarterly - OPP 11 months
  • Full yearly - OPP Infinite
  • Daily incremental - OPP 2 weeks

For each of these media sets set the append period to however long your duplicate to tape takes, plus a bit. I tend to set mine to 23 hours.

If you configure your backups using policies (and you should), then you can add a template at the end of the policy to duplicate the backup to tape.