January 16, 2007 at 12:24 pm
Does anyone have some good links to articles that can help me with a discussion I'm having with an owner.
Currently we have 1 corporate SQL Server (2005) that houses approximately 150GB worth of data in various databases.
I also have 3 off site SQL Servers (2000) that house approximately 40 GB worth of data in 2 seperate DB's.
With using just the built in Backup, we're obviously slow and the compression is negligible, plus the encryption is only as good as the media that we're backing up onto (in the case of the corporate it's a DLT tape drive, and in the off site centers it's simply backing up onto the C drive (the SQL is on a seperate physical array)).
I'm trying to justify to the owner the cost of 1 Pro version of Red Gates backup software along with 3 Standard versions and having a hard time with the cost basis since as the owner likes to state, the cost of a 250 GB HD is 1/3 the cost of the backup software. Thus I'm looking to people who have probably had quite a bit more experience than me in how best to accomplish good solid and secure backups (both from the encryption aspect, as well as email notification to others since these are off site servers).
Thanks in advance.
January 16, 2007 at 2:59 pm
Is this a 24x7 shop? I have to agree with the owner on this one. Why spend the money on expensive software when the Sql tools work just fine. You might save some space on tape but it still has to get to tape. I would suggest backing up the corporate to local disk then let the tape backup grab it. I've never had a problem restoring a sql native backup, but I have had issues with third party backups. What are the other advantages of getting this software. 40gig offsite and 150gig onsite is not that much data to backup, and your getting tape compression.
Just my 2 cents
Tom
January 17, 2007 at 6:56 am
You kind of hit the nail on the head there though.
I'm having a hard time trying to persuade because in the pure logical sense he's right, but some more information:
We run 16 hours a day on the SQL box (basic clean up tasks, etc during the off-hours). However, there is no tape backup for these systems. The backups are going to internal hard drives along with everything else that is on the network for the just in case scenarios.
My concerns are compression (so that I can store 2-4 days worth of backups) since some of these databases are between 40-60 GB. Otherwise I run the risk of running out of storage space when I back up 4-5 other additional machines (Entire HD's).
January 17, 2007 at 7:31 am
So, if I am reading correctly, the other offsite systems data is never going to tape? I don't know if you have access to a NAS, but that is where I take my backups to, and it has worked just fine. At a minimum, I would ship the disk backups from one machine to another, or create a backup box with enough space for 5 days worth of backups if you are not ever taking them off to tape. He'll have to make a decision on whether it is exceptable to be down and possibly out if the machine/drives crash. More hardware/drives/tapes, I think is money better spent than on software that only gets you compression.
Tom
January 17, 2007 at 8:16 am
To chime in here. I haven't had issues with the major backup software, only with agent based software (ArcServe, etc). I think Red Gate's product or Quest's product would be fine.
As far as business strategy, you need to get the data off site. Running to disk is fine, but you are trying to prevent data loss from a local issue, fire, etc. which could cause problems. I'd address that first. Be sure that you cover the bases here.
Second I'm not sure compression is worth it if you have space (relatively small DBs) and time (1/3 of the day), I might agree that having another drive or two offsite to backups or even more drives to speed up data access on the server. The only way I'd recommend this is if you are xferring data offsite and killing the pipe.
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