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SAN as a Back-Up Device



 
 
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  #1  
Old September 10th 03, 04:53 PM
Linux Penguin
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Posts: n/a
Default SAN as a Back-Up Device

Currently we are experiencing alot of problems with tape backup and I
have had some thoughts.

Is it possible to purchase a SAN with a huge amount of disk space (say
1 terrabyte), then partition the SAN storage up and then backup the
data from various servers to specific partition on the SAN.

This would get rid of tapes and restoration of files would be rapid as
no need to find tapes/load tape etc - and hopefully speed up backup
times.

now is this possible and would I need aditional software on the SAN or
can I use my existing back up software to backup the data onto the
SAN.

This would be done over night.

I have some experience of SAN.

I am currently investigating the options and if this is possible.

Any pointers to web sites would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance..
  #3  
Old September 11th 03, 05:26 AM
Paul Galjan
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Default

Yes, and you don't need a SAN. Matter of fact, most mid- and
enterprise-level backup apps have virtual tape library support. How it's
implemented and how it's used varies widely among vendors. Legato does it
really well...

An approach I commonly use with clients is to stage a full cycle of backups
on disk, then roll them off to tape, and send it off site. Say you're on a
1 week full, daily incremental backup. You back up once to disk, then all
your incrementals go to disk. You never have to do another full backup over
the network again. You can simply continue to do incrementals, then
consolidate them to another full backup. It's a time consuming operation
with tape, but not so with disk. You can even do it all under GPL with
rsync and tar (but no open file support).

With no-name IDE Raid costing less than $5k per TB it's becoming very
common.

One caveat: In my experience, disk is less reliable than tape. Too many
points of failure. I've seen controllers crap all over filesystems, making
them unusable, improper RAID implementations that don't use hot spares,
broken mirrors that don't show up as broken (until a disk fails). Of
course, tape isn't 100% either. You should never have less than three
copies of data you aren't willing to lose, and they should not be in the
same building (preferably, they shouldn't be within several KM; in some
circumstances, within several hundred KM).


"Linux Penguin" wrote in message
om...
Currently we are experiencing alot of problems with tape backup and I
have had some thoughts.

Is it possible to purchase a SAN with a huge amount of disk space (say
1 terrabyte), then partition the SAN storage up and then backup the
data from various servers to specific partition on the SAN.

This would get rid of tapes and restoration of files would be rapid as
no need to find tapes/load tape etc - and hopefully speed up backup
times.

now is this possible and would I need aditional software on the SAN or
can I use my existing back up software to backup the data onto the
SAN.

This would be done over night.

I have some experience of SAN.

I am currently investigating the options and if this is possible.

Any pointers to web sites would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance..



  #4  
Old September 11th 03, 08:11 PM
Andy
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

In article , linux.
says...

Currently we are experiencing alot of problems with tape backup and I
have had some thoughts.

Is it possible to purchase a SAN with a huge amount of disk space (say
1 terrabyte), then partition the SAN storage up and then backup the
data from various servers to specific partition on the SAN.

This would get rid of tapes and restoration of files would be rapid as
no need to find tapes/load tape etc - and hopefully speed up backup
times.

now is this possible and would I need aditional software on the SAN or
can I use my existing back up software to backup the data onto the
SAN.

This would be done over night.

I have some experience of SAN.

I am currently investigating the options and if this is possible.

Any pointers to web sites would be much appreciated.



you need to take a look at Overland Storage's new REO product line
it's the products that they got when they bought OKAPI
billed as a "backup accelerator", it allows you to back up D2D2T
over the LAN (or WAN) using iSCSI protocal at faster than direct speeds

coupled w/ the new generation of iSCSI HBAs / TOE cards this allows
you to back up multiple systems simultaneously over IP at faster than
DAS RAID speeds AND is able to sit in front of the backup server

for further info take a look at
www.overlandstorage.com or call us
to discuss the specifics & options

* it is doing it over the SAN, only it's the IP SAN, using your
existing LAN infrastructure

_____ . .
' \\ . . |
O// . . |
\_\ . . |
| | . . . |
/ | . www.EvenEnterprises.com . . . |
/ .| . . . |
/ . | 310-544-9439 / 310-544-9309 fax . . . o
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Authorized - DIRECT VAR/VAD/Distributor for new SCSI/FC-AL peripherals
NAS/SAN/RAID from HP, IBM, Seagate, EMC, QLogic, ATL, OverLand Data

  #5  
Old October 24th 03, 04:05 AM
Real-Storage
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

You could use a Direct Attach Storage (DAS) terabyte RAID on your backup
server and lazy write the data off to a tape library for offsite data
protection.

Real-Storage
www.real-storage.com



"Linux Penguin" wrote in message
om...
Currently we are experiencing alot of problems with tape backup and I
have had some thoughts.

Is it possible to purchase a SAN with a huge amount of disk space (say
1 terrabyte), then partition the SAN storage up and then backup the
data from various servers to specific partition on the SAN.

This would get rid of tapes and restoration of files would be rapid as
no need to find tapes/load tape etc - and hopefully speed up backup
times.

now is this possible and would I need aditional software on the SAN or
can I use my existing back up software to backup the data onto the
SAN.

This would be done over night.

I have some experience of SAN.

I am currently investigating the options and if this is possible.

Any pointers to web sites would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance..



  #6  
Old October 24th 03, 09:57 AM
paul blitz
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

I believe that using a SAN for backup is being considered more and more.
However, as Ales alluded to, you still need to organise backup of that SAN.

Prima Face, it appears that the SAN is *all* you would need: it has RAID, so
should not cause a failure, but consider the following.....

- someone overwrites an important document, and it's not discovered for 3
weeks. where can you get that file from?
- the backup system has a catastophic failure, and someone deletes /
modifies a live document (as above)
- archive storage of important data: you may need to archive stuuf for IRS
or other reasons.

So you still need some sort of tape / CD / whatever backup.... the good news
is that maybe it doesn't need to be quite as frequent.... you could maybe do
the tape backup just weekly rather than daily.

paul

"Real-Storage" wrote in message
hlink.net...
You could use a Direct Attach Storage (DAS) terabyte RAID on your backup
server and lazy write the data off to a tape library for offsite data
protection.

Real-Storage
www.real-storage.com



"Linux Penguin" wrote in message
om...
Currently we are experiencing alot of problems with tape backup and I
have had some thoughts.

Is it possible to purchase a SAN with a huge amount of disk space (say
1 terrabyte), then partition the SAN storage up and then backup the
data from various servers to specific partition on the SAN.

This would get rid of tapes and restoration of files would be rapid as
no need to find tapes/load tape etc - and hopefully speed up backup
times.

now is this possible and would I need aditional software on the SAN or
can I use my existing back up software to backup the data onto the
SAN.

This would be done over night.

I have some experience of SAN.

I am currently investigating the options and if this is possible.

Any pointers to web sites would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance..





 




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