backup exec 9.1 question

[elvis_stephen]

 I have a Dell poweredge 2800 server running raid 5 and I am getting ready to expand the raid.  Before doing so I would like to backup the entire system.  The server itself is mybackup server running Backup Exec 9.1.  Since I am out of space I can not back it up to itself and the offload it off the server.  My data backups are small, but I am using the desktop and laptop option to backup 70+ pcs and that is what is killing my space.  I need some suggestions on how to proerly back this thing up.

Thanks

[BernyR]

Hi,
Well first I would say is create a shared drive on your server with a  folder for each individual user. Then move the date you need to back from their workstations and laptops to these folders. Enforce a "company policy" and show the users that they must always save to these folders. Then setup there office applications IE word excel to save to default to that folder that you have created for each individual user. Once you have done this you have all the data you need. I don't understand why you want to back up each pc as well as a syste, crashes you can jsut swop a loan unit till the pc is fixed?.

Explain your environment a bit better please.

Berny

[Galane]

How large is your RAID? A couple of 1 or 2 TB drives are relatively inexpensive. Make two copies of everything you need to save to those drives then expand your RAID, then copy everything back from the big drives.

A bit of a brute force fix, but it will get the job done. Doubling up on the copies is just for insurance in case something happens to one of the drives.

To keep the employees server useage corralled, map each of them their own folder as a shared drive only they (and you as the server admin) have access to. If there are groups that collaborate on projects, do likewise for each of the groups. Should be able to map those to logins rather than workstations so access goes wherever the person goes.

Disk quotas are also a good thing to prevent people from hogging server space with personal files. Would be a good thing to send out a memo for everyone to check their files on the server and clean out any old junk they no longer need, especially anything not relevant to the company business. Gotta keep a tight reign on some things or people will expand their storage use to quickly fill whatever space is available. ;)

[elvis_stephen]

 The amount of data would be the same whether I use Desktop and laptop or a shared folder on the same server..  I have to backup users data incase of a hard drive crash.  I want to do a backup of the system not just the data, but the entire system, state and all.  To do this I need to select another location to back this up to and I can not find where in Veritas you can select another location for doing a Full system backup

[Ken_Putnam]

What kind of RAID controller do you have?

I know that you can add disks and expand the RAID online with SMART controllers ('Course response time to any data on the array complety crawls while is re-striping the data

if you controller won't support this, I'd agree with garlane.  Get a large external drive, attach it, and create a B2D folder on it.  Do your backup, add the new drives, let the Array re-build, then see the Admin Guide under "Disaster Recovery" to do the restore


I am curious how you can be using the DLO with v9.1, since v9.1 doesn't support it?

[C_Andy]

 Incase of extreme damage, I would like to backup all my files to one single hard drive and not just multiple tapes. I would of hated to have to rebuild all the servers again then start restoring one tape at a time. I thought it would be quicker simply to backup to an external hard drive then take that with me. Anyhow I did end up using the backup-to-disk folder option. It was fairly simple and the backup ran fairly quick too. Needless to say that I still do the tape rotation, however having the external hard drive around has been handy.

Andy

[Stephen_P]

 Hi Elvis,

Do you have anything to back up to like a tape drive or removable disk?

Stephen

[elvis_stephen]

 I do have a removable hard drive. 160gb USB.

[C_Andy · Accepted solution]

 Thats about the same size external hard drive I used . Since we had USB 2.0 it ran pretty quick. Set up the backup-to-disk folder option and Removable Backup-to-Disk folder option, this will allow you to use the removable hard drive. Also I recommend you do not make one huge backup file but break thebackup into smaller sizes perhaps under 4GB. To do this you need to add the Removable Backup-to-Disk folder, once this is setup click on "Devices". You should now see it under removable backup-to-disk devices. Right click the device and click on properties, then click the configuration tab. Set your maximum size for backup-to-disk files to what ever you think is fine.

Andy