SwissTony

iTrader: (19)

Guys,
(the mac guys will be pricking their ears up now..)

Need some advice on back up solutions for a network of macs.
Forget all the small home solutions like deja vu, .mac backup etc.
I have a client that needs a good system installed soon.
smalish company (design around 10-15 workstations)
They have 1 windows based server, with 2 NAS units which are replicated to external firewire drives.
the main problem is that because of the large file sizes they deal with, they are starting to be lazy and to keep their data on the client mac instead of the server ( i know i have told them).
What i need is a network/client solution that may have a mixture of server based backup, desktop based backup, off line storage, archiving solutions etc.
The key points that this solution must address are:

* Fast, idiot proof and reliable
* Can back up server and clients across the network
* can back up to a mixed media solution, so tape and disk
* can archive as well as backup
* most important must be a solution that can recover data quickly
* can backup OS9, OSX and 1 PC running XP

and dont please please just say Dantz retrospect to me !!

any ideas, tips would be most grateful.
i am sure that some of the mac guys on here are part of large companies that have a good solution in place and might be bale to provide some recommendations

cheers in advance

Swiss

RichB

Hate to say it but, i worked in an ISP that used Retrospect for yonks without a hitch, all version of Mac OS are no problem.
Why are we not to say Retrospect again?
Have you already got/looked at that and are looking for alternates? (cos I don't know any )

Markus

Swiss,
I work for a Macintosh Software Developer and part of my job is Network Admin, so I get the task of making sure things are backed up. Any companies data is important, but the code that makes your living possible, well, it's got to be safe.

We're a mixed environment, Sales, Marketing and Accounts departments use PC's the rest of us use Macs primarily, but have the odd PC server for testing (running Win 2000 and Linux).

We have three main servers, one Mac web server, and two Win 2000 servers, one acts as a mail and ftp server the other as a file server.

All of these computers need to be backed up using one software product and to the same destination.

I did a bit of research many years ago when we set this up and the only product I could find that would handle exactly what I needed was Dantz's Retrospec Multi Server (I had a different name back then, and I think they have changed the name since).

a normal Retrospect product is fine at backing up the client side of things, however, it won't handle the windows servers, thus the need for the multi-server package which supports backup of clients and servers.

I quite happily backup all of our macs (running 8.6, 9.2.2, 10.2.x, 10.3.x and 10.4 - but I didn't mention 10.4 ) and all of our PC's (XP Home, XP Pro, Win 2000 Server) using this software to one backup server (Win 2000 Server).

It's simplicity itself to setup backup sets, and there is full functionailty for archival of backup sets too.

My setup is this. I have an incrmental backup performed on all machines every night, thus catching any daily changes, then, once a week I have a full backup of everything to a different backup set. By default a backup set is incremental, which is nice, but it's easy enough to get it to to a full backup every day if you so wish.

As for restoring data, it's very simple. Select the backup set that contains the data, then select the files you want to restore (or select the whole volume) then select the destination to restore too, hit the restore button and sit back and wait. It really is that simple.

All in all, I'm very happy with the setup, it works, and has done for five years so far. In that time we have had clients and servers go down and as you can imagine when your mail/ftp server goes down, you need it back up asap and Retrospect allowed me to do just that.

Is there any specific reason you would not want to use Dantz products?

SwissTony

iTrader: (19)

Thanks guys for the replies

Rich B and Marcus
Appreciate your replies.
The reason i mentioned Retrospect, is because we already have that installed and have had experience of the product in the past.
It worked very well when we first used it, as it was able to back up the server (w2K) and clients running OS9 and OSX.
But over time it has proved to be flaky for a number of reasons.
1. it would miss clients out for no reason, even if the client version was running and awaiting scheduled backups
2. Recovery of data was sometimes hit and miss
3. Error messages were non-sensical
4. It took exception to the sony AIT autoloader on numerous occasions and would regularly stop when the media was perfect.

all in all it made the client nervous and untrusting of the software, so it is a bit of an uphill task trying to convince them to try it again.I know that the software has improved but it makes sense to give the client a few options.

What i am thinking is a mixed system of:
Server based back up software, that backs up server data and network clients to rotating back up sets.
In addition i am going to propose some desktop based back up solutions like the Maxtor one step units to back up all the days work done on the local mac.

I realise that it is difficult to ignore the market leader for mac backup, i just was interested what other mac guys might suggest, either by hearsay or actual realtime experiences

Chris

Markus

I can see why you, and the client would be reluctant to use Retrospect. Question is, what version did you use? I only got into using the multi-backup as of version 6.0 (current is 7.x) and I've not had that many problems. When I did, popped onto the Dantz forum an got an answer within 2 hours, which isn't bad.

I would seriously consider revisiting the software, as it will do, in one package, exactly what you want. It will prevent having two different systems in place.

Oh, and no, I don't work for Dantz