I need help with off site backups

[53cT3ch]

Hello,

 

I am using retrospect multiserver v 7.6.111. I have 15 client PC's and 2 Iomega NAS devices with 1TB of storage on each. What are the best practices for off-site backup? I have tried backing up through the internet by running a "normal backup set transfer" from the NAS device on-site to the NAS device off-site. This takes over 3 days to complete. I am using "simple crypt" encryption on the retrospect data itself. I am using AES 256bit encrytption on the VPN tunnel between our 2 sites. Should I lower the encryption level of the VPN tunnel? Should I have my 15 clients backup to both NAS devices directly? (instead of first backing up to the onsite NAS device and then those backups transfered from the on-site NAS device to the off-site NAS device.)I hope my explaination makes sense. Many thanks in advance!! Any help at all would be greatly appreciated.

[53cT3ch]

:cryy:

[Richy_Boy]

Do your IOMega NAS boxes support rsync backups? (i.e. between each other)

 

If so, you need to use this to copy data between sites, unless you have a huge internet pipe between your sites. Do your first sync locally on the office LAN, then move the NAS box to it's remote destination where it will only copy changes.

 

i.e. I use Netgear ReadyNAS devices. RS backups clients proactively throughout the day, then in the evening the servers backup.

 

Carefully scheduled around this are rsync duplications over the internet, which copy over the changed data within certain Retrospect backup folders, cutting down the data that needs copying.

 

As rsync isn't secure, I push these through an SSH tunnel, which is simular to running a VPN (which the ReadyNAS don't support directly and I didn't want to invest in a second VPN end-point - the data is encrypted anyway).

 

If I couldn't use rsync, we would have far too much 'total' data to be able to handle online, especially witin an overnight window and I'll be back rotating SATA drives!

 

On top of this duplication, I also trigger local NAS > USB HDD copies too, which are taken home just in case... (you can never have too many copies, eh!)

 

Hope this helps...

 

Rich

Edited May 12, 2010 by Guest

[53cT3ch]

Thank you so much Rich,

The Iomega 200RL doesn't support Rsync :omg:

Do you know of any other ways to send the data from one NAS to another without using rsync?

I may have to purchase some netgear readyNas'

 

This is our current bandwidth:

On site: 1.5 Mbps upload and download

offsite: 20 Mbps Fios upload and download

 

Im thinking about upgrading the connection speeds.

do you think these speeds would work for off-site backups? (instead of purchasing new NAS devices that support rsync)

On site: 20 Mbps Fios upload and download

offsite: 3 Mbps upload and download

 

You're also right about the second local NAS to USB HDD copy. Definatly a good precaution.

 

Thank you once again!!

[Richy_Boy]

These figures are assuming you have a 12 hour backup window - outside of that time the lines are used by business and will impact your network.

 

Roughly, the most you can push through in a 12 hour window is about 7.7GB, network overheads taken into account.

 

I would personally look at your backup mechanism before spending out on additional bandwith purely to service these backups. Using a protocol 'like' R-sync (I believe some NAS boxes call it something else, so read up!) then you're only copying changed data each night, which HUGELY reduces the time it takes to copy, once you have the initial backup done locally.

 

As an example of how effective this is: each night I duplicate all our desktops, all our domain controllers and most of our core servers nightly through a 2Mb/s link (which is actually bandwidth capped to only use 1,8Mb/s so other services can tick over like ActiveSync, website etc).

 

I don't duplicate laptop backups as the laptops aren't kept in the office overnight so will not be lost in a DR scenario. (I do have USB HDD copies offsite though)

 

I don't think Retrospect will be releasing a delta backup soluton anytime soon, which will further reduce offsite backup needs.

 

I'm planning, once we have completed our VM migraton, to be able to duplicate our entire network offsite by just using VM delta backup tools and our ReadyNAS devices.

 

Will it work? I hope so!

 

Rich

Edited May 18, 2010 by Guest

[53cT3ch]

Hi Rich,

My backup window is 15 hours. I had an idea, but i don't know if it will work. I was thinking of placing a windows PC with the Iomega 200RL NAS device on both sides of my VPN tunnel then mapping the NAS device as a local Harddrive for both PCs on the ends of the tunnel. Then I was thinking, I could install the windows version on Rsync on both PCs and use the mapped network drives (200RLs) as my target. Have you ever heard of Rsync being used this way? Any ideas?

Thank you again for all your help!!

[Richy_Boy]

No problem helping out. You could place a windows machine on each end and use the NAS box for storage, sure.

 

I have used an opensource package called DeltaCopy which is basically a Windows ported Rsync package. It works just as Rsync would and allows for SSH tunnelling too (if being passed over a non-secure link).

 

Rsync sits more natively on Linux although you may not feel comfortable using Linux (although helpful GUIs are available to setup schedules etc)...

 

Rich