Don't Understand W2K Server Backup Types!

[Billy]

I'm struggling with the most efficient backup type to use for my W2K server
that contains critical files and folders such as my web site and 5 years of
digital JPG images.

I simply have one Travan tape drive with one 20gb tape always inserted. The
data back up is about 2gb in size. The web site files change infrequently
and the existing JPG's never change. However, I do *add* several JPG files
to the folders being backed up on a regular basis (daily/weekly).

I don't care how long it takes to perform a backup because the process will
be unattended, but I do want to be able to perform quick restores if needed.
My thoughts are to perform a normal backup monthly, and incremental or
differential backups daily. Remember, I'll be storing every backup on just
one tape.

My confusion is if this plan is the most efficient, and will it provide me
with a reliable backup that can be restored quickly? I keep reading these
articles that say that I will need to restore the original and *every*
incremental/differential to properly perform an incremental/differential
restoration. Does that would mean that in a year from now, I would then need
to restore 365 backups to obtain a file backup up tonight?

 

[Martin Schmid]

restoration. Does that would mean that in a year from now, I would then need
to restore 365 backups to obtain a file backup up tonight?

Yes... however, some backup products automate this process for you...
however, it may be very slow restoring 365 incremental backups.

I might recommend periodic full backups... i.e. weekly or monthly. Then,
perform periodic incremental or differential backups.

If you perform incremental backups, your backups will be faster, but you
will have to apply all incremental backups after the initial full restore.

If you perform differential backups, your backups will be slower since you
are backing up more data, however, after the initial full restore, you only
have to apply the LAST differential backup made..

You have to weigh the data into your configuration...

I.e., your tape drive may be 20GB. With a 2GB full backup, and 1MB
incremental added per day, you can run a year's worth of backup on one tape
(2GB + 365MB), but you may be more prone to backup media failure.

Alternately, you may run a full backup, but the differential backups will
grow, day 1 will be 1MB, day 2 will be 2MB, day 365 will be 365MB... add
this all up, and you end up with about 69GB of backup data... so periodic
full backups will be required, or many many more tapes.

MS

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

I'd buy more tapes, and do regular full backups. They take longer, but will
give you more flexibility & reliability with full restores...

 

[dcdon]

One day your Travan is gonna flub...
I would have all my basic jpeg's on another external HDD or even CDs close
enough for that oh damn it.
And you are much better off with multiple tapes with fulls and limit the
number of incrimentals.

Just my experience
don
----------
I'm struggling with the most efficient backup type to use for my W2K server
that contains critical files and folders such as my web site and 5 years of
digital JPG images.

I simply have one Travan tape drive with one 20gb tape always inserted. The
data back up is about 2gb in size. The web site files change infrequently
and the existing JPG's never change. However, I do *add* several JPG files
to the folders being backed up on a regular basis (daily/weekly).

I don't care how long it takes to perform a backup because the process will
be unattended, but I do want to be able to perform quick restores if needed.
My thoughts are to perform a normal backup monthly, and incremental or
differential backups daily. Remember, I'll be storing every backup on just
one tape.

My confusion is if this plan is the most efficient, and will it provide me
with a reliable backup that can be restored quickly? I keep reading these
articles that say that I will need to restore the original and *every*
incremental/differential to properly perform an incremental/differential
restoration. Does that would mean that in a year from now, I would then need
to restore 365 backups to obtain a file backup up tonight?

 

[Billy]

Can't I have fulls on one tape? I was thinking that the same tape would be
erased after every full backup and it would start fresh. However, now I
think that may be a wrong assumption. I get the feeling you were inferring
that the one tape would run out after so many full backups. Is that true?
I'm using the W2K's built-in backup utility to schedule jobs.

 

[Billy]

You say:
"If you perform differential backups, your backups will be slower since you
are backing up more data, however, after the initial full restore, you only
have to apply the LAST differential backup made."

This sounds like the plan I want but can I do this with one tape? I would
erase the tape and do a full backup monthly, while performing differentials
on a daily schedule in-between. Then, if I need to restore, the same tape
will have the full and differential. Also, what do you mean by "*apply* the
last differantial backup made"? How is it *applied*?

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

If your tape is always inserted then you are obviously not
interested in off-site storage of data.

If this is so then it makes no sense using a tape backup
solution. You would be much better off using a disk-based
solution. Buy a 20 GByte hard disk (they are cheap!) and
install it as a slave disk.

To back up your files you should get your Task Scheduler
to run this batch file once every day:

@echo off
for /F "tokens=1 delims=/ " %%d in ('echo %date%') do set
dow=%%d
(unwrap line)

xcopy /d /y /c /s "c:\YourFolder\*.*" F:\Backup\%dow%\
xcopy /y /c /s "c:\YourFolder\*.*" F:\Backup\Full
dir /s /od F:\Backup > c:\Backup.log

This will give you 7 fully automatic backup folders, one for each
day of the week, so you have 7 days time to recover a file that
might have been corrupted. After 7 days the file gets overwritten.

You also get a "Full" backup folder that never gets overwritten.
It contains every file that ever was in your folder.

Lastly, you get a listing of all backed up files in c:\Backup.log.

And best of all: Retrieving files from backup is a piece of cake.
It is extremely fast and extremely simple.

 

[Billy]

I'm using only 1 tape. If I were to have multiple tapes and simply do a
normal backup every morning, how many tapes would you recommend? I'm using a
Travan NS 10gb/20gb tape, and these cost $37 each, so I can't afford to buy
many. However, the JPG memories are priceless, so whatever it takes to make
efficient safe backups is what I will spend. What is your backup schedule
and # of tapes recommendation?

PS - I'm already doing CD's too.