Backup Software choices

[Alan Casey]

We have the option of using the following backup software for backing up and restoring our HP-UX and Sun Solaris UNIX servers,
1. Brightstor Arcserve Backup version 9 for windows
2. Backup Exec for Windows servers Version 9

I wanted to know if anyone with experience with these products can offer any advice on which to choose and any potential disadvantages etc with either of them.
Thanks

[Stefan Farrelly]

Experience with both, unfortunately I dont like either - too many problems in my opinion. Have you considered HP's Omniback (aka. data protector) or Veritas Netbackup or Legato Networker ? these are the big 3 and all pretty good for unix servers.

[Sunil Sharma_1]

Hi,

I am agree with Stefen,
but when you have to choose one out of two i think Brightstore is batter option.


Sunil

[Thierry Poels_1]

hi,

I agree with Stegan: If I have to choose between Arcserve and Backup Exec I would choose HP's Omniback ;)

regards,
Thierry

[Pete Randall]

I've never seen Stefan's name mangled so!

I'd vote for OBII(DataProtector) with Legato Networker a distant second and wouldn't even consider these "for Windoze" products!


Pete

[Thierry Poels_1]

okay okay, I agree with Pete then ;-)

[twang]

We are currently using HP's Omniback, it is really easy to use and also support oracle hotbackup. It can support all our backup strategies.

[Alan Casey]

Thanks guys.

I will make a case against using this software. If you can give me any examples of where they are lacking features or compatability that would also help.

Alan

[Graham Cameron_1]

Alan
The product manufacturers give you all the ammo you need.

From the ARCSERVE website at http://www3.ca.com/Solutions/ProductFamily.asp?ID=115 , comes the quote
" Data protection solutions are available for Windows, NetWare and Linux."

From the Backup Exec site at http://www.veritas.com/products/category/ProductDetail.jhtml?productId=bews ,
"comprehensive, cost effective protection for Microsoft Windows server environments"

Enterprise-wide backup solutions these ain't.

I notice no previous poster mentioned TSM (Tivoli Storage Manager). It's used here, with limited success but in a previous position (at a bank) it was considered the best thing since sliced bread.
Not cheap though...

-- Graham

[Elmar P. Kolkman]

One major advantage if your network bandwidth is an issue could be the client-side compression of Networker. Almost all other backup software still miss this one... With the current speed of backup devices it is still an issue though. And since the data is compressed before sending to the tapedevice, the needed bandwidth for the tapedevice drops, allowing more tapedevices on one channel, though most hardware vendors won't support it.

My experience with both DP and Networker will put Networker on top and HP's DP second, leaving Veritas Netbackup undecided (no real experience with it).

[Elmar P. Kolkman]

(On a site note: the reliability of software depends on the weakest link. Don't give the OS the chance to be that link ;-) )

[Geoff Wild · Accepted solution]

We use backup exec for our remote sites - but for our main data centre's, we use Netbackup.

Netbackup is really an Enterprise solution - if your site grows in the future, you may want to consider Backup Exec for now, then upgrade to Netbackup later....

I'm not to sure if Arcserve has an Enterprise solution like Netbackup or Omniback.

I was at a smaller site a long time ago, and they used Arcserve and had no issues with it - though they only used it to backup Novell and Windows...Unix was backed up with Netbackup...

Rgds...Geoff

[Dave La Mar]

Alan -
Here's my .02.
We spent months deciding between TSM, Omniback, Legato, and Veritas.
Veritas won out.
After some initial installation and operation problems it has been running solid for two years here as an enterprise solution.
Master server and media servers are HP-UX, the Veritas techs could never seem to get it right on the NT platform.
It is currently used 24 X 7 X 365 backing up Oracle on HP-UX and NT, SQL on NT, Exchange, Linux, and a host of other things.
This product is easy to manipulate either by GUI or scripting. About 30% of our backups are scripted with the rest scheduled through the Veritas GUI.
We find it rather robust.
The support level is very good and they have a users group which is convenient.
Best of luck in your hunting.

Regards,

dl

[Ralph Haefner]

Add me to the Netbackup crew. Everywhere I've worked (4 different jobs now) has either used it or been in the process of moving from what they had to Netbackup. It does a good job and isn't particularly hard to use as far as backup products go.

I figured out a theory though . . . When I was a help desk guy I noticed every senior admin I asked what the best backup product was picked something OTHER than what they first used or learned on. The guys who learned on Legato said Netbackup was better, the Arcserve guys said to use Legato, etc. That led me to believe all backup software is so crappy no matter which you have the other choices seem better.

[Kurt Beyers.]

I'll be replacing an Arcserve backup solution next week with Data Protector. Arcserve is trown out because it is causing a lot of problems.

The IBM solution (TSM) is also pretty good, but more comples than other backup solutions to configure and to maintain it.

Kurt

[Elmar P. Kolkman]

I'm sorry to be Ralph's proof of theory by being the exception to it...
I learned Networker and thus learned to overcome it's problems by myself. Something I haven't had the time with with Omniback (and had the time with for Amanda, btw) and still am in favor of Networker. But this seems a good post with a lot of good views...

[Joe Short]

Cast my vote for Data Protector. Here is a list of reasons why.

1. It is frequently less costly than other products. It is licenses by the concurrent tape drive, not per client. You can have as many clients in a DP environment as you want for no additional financial investment.

2 If you have an HP support contract, then adding DP to the environment means you still only have one phone number to call.

3. Support is more complete. If you are running DP on HPUX, then problems can be more easiy solved, the support is end to end. You don;t get caught in the middle of a finger pointing battle.

4. It is incredibly easy to install, and use. The interface is very intuitive.

5. It's very flexible and easily tunable. For example, you could define the same tape drive several times, each with it's own set of tunable parameters (block size, file mark, etc)

These are just a few of my reasons for preferring it. As for the theory of not liking the first product an admin used for backup, I'm not a part of that. My favorite backup product will always be the first one I learned on, unfortunately, the company was bought out, and the product discontinued.

[Alzhy]

It's a toss a coin between Legato Networker and NetBackup... I have very solid experiences on both and I'd say they're neck and neck interms of features, performance, scalability and stability...