Moving from DVD backup to Disk

[GerryRigney]

Hi All

 

We are currently backing up a remote office locally to DVD-RW, the initial backup is around 7GB but the daily increments would not be too big. We've been running into problems with the current setup and would like to backup over our VPN to a server in our head office.

 

Is there some way we can do a full backup to DVD in the remote office, then ship the DVDs over to head office, transfer the data to the server then run incremental backups over the network from then on? We use retrospect express in the remote office but have retrospect 7 on the sever we'd be backing up to. The inter office connection is limited by the remote offices upload speed (256kb/s or 512kb/s) so doing a full backup over that wouid take ages.

 

Thanks for any help anyone can provide, does anyone else backup over this type of connection? How reliable is it ?

 

thanks again

gerry

[RonaldL]

You could do the initial backup to DVD, send it to head office and transfer it to a disk backup set. You'll also want to include the catalog file, otherwise you'll have to rebuild it.

 

You'll want to make sure that the system at the head office has a supported DVD drive (preferably the exact model that the original backup was created with).

[GerryRigney]

thanks for your reply Ronald and apologies for the delay in getting back to you, I was away.

 

couple more questions if you don't mind,

 

once the backup set is transferred to the disk backup set would you initialise the future incremental backups from the server in main office (running full version retro 7) or from the machine in the remote office (running retro express and the place that the full backup to DVD was created?)

 

Also, how important is having the same drive? Our servers are rack mounted servers with laptop dvds drives and no way to install a similar ide dvd rw.

 

thanks again for your time and help

atb

gerryR

[RonaldL]

All new backups will be initiallized from the server in the main office now and you will no longer need to run Retrospect directly on the original systems, you'll only need the Retrospect Client.

 

The DVD backups *should* work with any supported drive, but I've seen the fewest problems if it's the exact same model and firmware. If the DVD method doesn't work out, you could always hookup a small external harddrive to do the initial backups instead.

[GerryRigney]

Hi Ronald.

 

Thanks for that.

 

1st prob I've encountered is the DVD drive on the server doesn't show up in Retrospect, I'm assumeing because its a DVD ROM and not RW. Will have to source an external Writer to test thing out.

 

Thanks for all your help

gerryR