Backup solution

[Helen French]

Hi everybody!

We are just planning for a new backup solution in some servers (right now running with Legato Networker). Right now we have Omniback and Veritas Netbackp on the planning desk, but I just wanted have some excellent recommendation from the forums! From your exeperiences, which one will you recommend? What about the support issues, peformance etc? Any other solutions?

The OS is HP-UX 11.0

Thanks!
Shiju

[Ken Hubnik_2]

It depends on how much data and what type of servers you are going to backup. We use Legato for Unix and NT and annually do a D/R recovery. Legato works great on unix but on NT lots of registry issues but I hear that is a problem with all vendors.

[Tom Danzig]

I recall reading a couple of very detailed forum threads on this issue. Do a search on omniback and netbackup. As I recall, the primary beef with netbackup was cost.

[A. Clay Stephenson · Accepted solution]

OB2 and Veritas are both quite good. Surprisingly, I don't count speed (with limits) as a terribly important factor because no matter how fast it is, it isn't fast enough. Generally, you need to rely upon some form of data splitting or snapshotting for the speed aspect and that has nothing to do with the backup software. I tend to favor the power of the pre and post exec scripting functionality over everything else. Cost is also given some consideration.

The last time that I did this evaluation, my result were this:

Veritas is a bit faster on backup and restore.

OB2 is better in the scripting interfaces.

Veritas is much more expensive especially when you have large numbers of clients.

[fg_1]

Shiju

We just switched from Omniback to veritas here and it was more for the satisifcation of the windows server team. There is HUGE cost associated with netbackup across the enterprise but I will admit it has much better recovery ability especially with large scale filesystems and also with MS Exchange where it has the ability to restore down to the individual mailbox level.

Omniback is a good product but is flaky as far as it's daemon processes go and also requires alot more care and feeding of the catalog databases. More overhead as far as maintenace cost go.

My recommendation would be to put your mission critical servers on Veritas and keep using your current product for your non-production environments. This will reduce some of the cost.

GL

FG

[Leif Halvarsson_2]

Hi

For tecnical reasons I thing you can choose any of them, both are exccelent products. Veritas NetBackup has broader platform support and perhaps some advanced features (as inline tape copy). On the other hand, it is much more expensive compared to OmniBack and has a more complicated licensing structure.

Without knowing your exact needs I would recommend OmniBack, mainly for the costs.

[Deshpande Prashant]

Hi Shiju
Is there a reason for switching from existing Legato?

If your environment is all HP I would prefer to use Omniback.

Here are some of threads with similar discusions.

http://forums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,,0x7714cbaac6dcd5118ff40090279cd0f9,00.html

http://forums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,,0x21f5227a4bc6d611abdb0090277a778c,00.html

http://forums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,,0x7714cbaac6dcd5118ff40090279cd0f9,00.html

http://forums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,,0x2cce99f08a51d61190040090279cd0f9,00.html

Thanks.
Prashant Deshpande.

[Helen French]

Thanks for all the replies!

Clay, Could please explain if there is any system performance issue during backup time, with OB? I am just concerned about the online backups during night shifts.

Prasanth, The main reason we are switching from Legato is Support, then other legal issues regarding contract, t and c, etc.

Any more inputs are welcome! points will follow...
Shiju

[A. Clay Stephenson]

My comparsion data is rather old (the test version of OB2 was 3.0) so take this for what it is worth.

Large filesystem backups were about 9% faster with Veritas and restore were about 5% faster than OB2. Your results may vary. Again, speed is really of little import when the real goal is to minimize application downtime for backup.

[Robert-Jan Goossens]

Hi Shiju,

This is always a bit of a problem. Legato software is very strong for multi platform backup solutions but the support could be better. We are using Legato (because of the multi platform solution (microsoft,sun,hp,san))but we signed a support contract whith Sun (solstice backup). Maybe you can find a retailer who can give you a better support.

Regards

Robert-Jan.

[John Poff]

Hi Shiju,

We use OmniBack in our environment. We have evaluated Veritas Netbackup a couple of times. It is a nice product, but it is expensive. OmniBack doesn't do all the things we would like it to do, but it works. We would like to see OmniBack do more with streaming backups to a pool of tapes better than it does now. Support hasn't been a real problem with OmniBack. We also have several remote locations where we are using OmniBack, and the ease of use of OmniBack makes it a real winner for us.

JP

[OneNeck UNIXSA]

We use both Netbackup and OmniBack. Our OmniBack environments seem a lot more stable then the Netbackup environments. I Personally like OmniBack for the following reasons:
1) Feature/Price: Great bang for the buck. Especially in the area of DB integrations.
2) User GUI: Well designed, and very easy to use.
3) CLI : Same as #2.
4) Proven: We have used OmniBack for a couple and have had little problem with it.
5) Deployment of client patches is very easy from the GUI.

Anyway,
That is my $.02

[Helen French]

Thanks Thomas! Thanks for the comparisons and advices. We will probably go with OB solution now and will consider Netbackup for a new site.

Thanks everyone and have a great day!
Shiju