Which backup software to use ??

[Simon R Wootton]

We have 2 servers (both N class/RP7410) at different locations in the UK. One server runs Omniback II software to perform daily backups overnight and works very well.

The other server has no specific backup software and runs hpux 'cpio' to copy to DAT/DLT drives. We are about to invest in an UIltrium 460 drive to reduce backup/restore times and I'm looking for recommended associated software eg. Omniback or similar.

What's out there and does anyone have recommendations or ones to avoid ?? !!

All help rewarded generously!

Thanks
Simon

[Mark Grant · Accepted solution]

Omniback/data protector is so well supported it is difficult not to suggest using it. Veritas Netbackup has the enviable feature of using "tar" format so you can extract tapes using "tar" if you have to. Legato seems to work OK but hasn't anything particularly interesting. The thing that always persuades me to recommend Omniback/Data Protector is the fact that you do not need a license for the backup clients. This can have a major impact on costs.

All of the above have awful schedulers.

[Michael Tully]

You could and can use omniback to schedule backups to your remote site(s) quite easily to local drives, regardless of whether they are tape library or not. The licensing is quite good. I agree with Mark, the scheduling sucks to say the least for most backup products. Legato has just been purchased by EMC, so look for a major improvement in that product. Going by past offerings from EMC, it will be a major improvement.

[Elmar P. Kolkman]

Major pre of networker: client side compression. Data is sent compressed over the network, which is not the case for most other backup products. If you need this depends on the free number of CPU clock cycles, the network bandwidth and the speed of the tapedrive(s).

Another thing: networker can do saveset cloning. This is a lot more useful then the Omniback/Data Protector cloning, which only works on complete tapes and fails if the clone tape is smaller then the original tape.

Pre- and post- commands are more easily achieved for OmniBack/Dataprotector as for Networker, especially since they are not run in Networker after a backup failure (you need to remove some lock/tmp files for it to work again).

I have no recent experience with NetBackup.

But to put it simple: it depends on what you need what product is best. And try to keep it simple. It is easier to maintain 1 product, even it is used at several sites, then a different product for every site.

[john korterman]

Hi Simon,
I think that you should first look at your obligations considering restore time: having done that, there might not be much to choose between...
Another thing is the cost: the general tendency over the last couple of years - at least over here - is that our customers prefer backup methods that do not involve any manual intervention on their side at all: of course in order to avoid paying for personnel to do tape changes etc. Therefore, Omniback over the network may sound good to the customer, but your obligations regarding restore time should have the highest priority.
It sounds as if no formal procedures regarding the new server exist: if you end up with a solution involving the customer having responsibilities for e.g. tape change/insertion, you should have rules for that put down on paper, as it will definitely prevent many complaints.

regards,
John K.


regards,
John K.

[Pete Randall]

Simon,

I can report that I've used both Networker and OmnibackII and had excellent results with both. I would probably still be using Networker except for the fact that their support is terrible. When the product is working properly, everything is wonderful. When it breaks and you need support, I found that *days* of downtime simply wasn't acceptable. I switched to OBII and have been quite happy with it.


Pete

[Simon R Wootton]

Omniback/Data Protector is looking like the favourite !!

Thanks to everyone for their input - much appreciated.

If anyone else views this question and has anything to add, then please do - points still available !

[Sean Black]

I have never used OmniBack/data protector so I don't have an opinion on it but I do have an opinion on the software that we use at our company.

We use HiBack from HiComp (http://www.hicomp.com/) and have been using it now for about 8 years. We are actually still using a fairly old version of it but it does the trick for our needs. It has the ability to backup to tape drives on other systems (as long as the Hiback daemon is running and licensed on the other systems). As well, it allows you to do what they call a parallel store - this is the ability to use 2 or more tape drives (I currently use 3 x DDS3 drives for one system's full backup) and write to them at the same time. All you do is specify which fileset you want to backup, then tell that you want to do a multi tape backup (split) and then give it the tape drives that you want to use. It then does the split for you - it calculates the split so that approximately the same amount of data is written to each tape.

I can't speak to it's GUI interface since I have never used it. All I have ever used it's command line/text interface. As well they have a scheduler package (HiBars) that I have never used as well. I just use shell scripts and cron for backups so never have needed anything fancy (and I don't even have anything other then text terminals or emulators to use - no X-Terminals or the like)

For us here that has been a wonderful and one of the main reasons for not looking for a replacement yet. The restore process with a split store is a little less elegant to restore from that to backup to, but it has not been a large problem for us yet!

Not having looked at HPUX backup software for many years, you may all be saying that all the new products have these features now - and if so - I apologize. But if I help out someone, then great.

Thanks

Sean Black

[aparna challagulla]

Hi Simon,

We use Omniback/DataProtector for all our backups. We dont use the scheduler but do the backup manually at night.A few months back we had to review our backup policy for a new application and we did consider going for Veritas Netbackup but the licensing was a very big issue. As a small organization we find omniback to be a good solution as the cost is less compared to other backup solutions.

Rgds,
aparna

[John Poff]

Hi Simon,

I have to agree with the others. I'd recommend Omniback [Data Protector]. We've used it for several years in our shop, and also for several remote sites spread across the country. It has been extremely reliable, easy to maintain, and most importantly, the data has always been there when we needed it.

JP

[Charlie Bulosan_1]

Hi Simon,

I also recommend Omniback/Data Protector as it is really an excellent backup software. We've used it to backup systems located in the Asia Pacific region, local and remote. We've used Maestro for scheduling.

Regards,
Charlie