We use Data Domain for backup archiving. It is 1/2 mile away at another site.

I back up all my databases to the actual server that it resides on. I keep two days' worth of backups on the server (space permitting). I wrote a program that takes two directories as a parameter, and it copies all the files in the first directory to the second directory (the Data Domain), if they are not already there (saves the copy time if it already exists). I keep 14 days' worth of backups on the Data Domain (as per policy). To accomplish this, I wrote another program to take a list of directories, and each directory can have a different number of days associated. The program looks at the directory and deletes any files that are older than the number of days given for that directory. That keeps the Data Domain cleaned up. If the policy of 14 days ever changes, all I have to do is change the number of days in the cleanup parameter file and it will extend the backups for those days.

I don't use any compression, as everything I've read says that compressed or encrypted files do not dedupe well. I send all database backup files to the Data Domain, SQL Server, PostgreSQL, Oracle, MySQL, etc.

I set the Scheduled Task to run under my Windows account, and the Data Domain has my user as the owner of the directories that I can write to.

I would not recommend backing up directly to the Data Domain. Two reasons. 1) You are backing up across the network, which means that you are tied to the network speed, and if any hickups happen, you could loose the backup. 2) Not only are you throttled by the network speed, you are also throttled by the time it takes to do the dedupe, since Data Domain is a target, in-line dedupe. This means that it dedupes before it writes to any disks. This takes time, so it slows down the backup even more.

Sometimes the backup across the network cannot be avoided, especially for situations where you don't have room on the server for the backup. Just know that you are paying both penalties if you do.

I love the Data Domain (deduping part, don't care what the platform is, as long as it is in-line target dedupe). It lets me keep a lot of backups available any time I need them. I have had several occasions where it came in handy. All I have to do is copy the file back to the appropriate database server, and restore the database from those files. Works great if they need to see a database that has certain data before it was deleted or modified, I just restore it to a test database for their use, and drop it when they are done with it. Have also used it a couple of times for actual restores. Worked like a charm.

I personally love the setup. Don't have to wait on tapes, and don't have to rely on anyone else.