SOHO backups...

[Edders]

The system we use at the office is far from high-tech. We have an image disk with the operating system part of each server, so we can easily setup a new one. The data on each server is backed up to a backup server during each night. Important data must therefore always be stored on one of the servers and not on the HD of one of the office computers. This ensures that all our data is duplicated on the backup server.

Each friday the backup server copies all data to a large removable harddisk - in encrypted form(!). This harddisk is taken home by the owner of the company who on Monday will bring a different harddisk back. He has copies of the image disks for the server at his home too of course. We replace each of these drives at least once a year.

I regard keeping backups off-premise as important as the actual backing up. If the company burns down then we will still have all our data so we can immediately setup shop somewhere else and continue doing business. Keeping your backups at the same location as the servers does not help you in case of such a calamity. It did not take me long to convince the owner of this. Every once and a while he gives me a disk home as well just to ensure there are copies at different locations.

Each server has a redundant RAID system to protect us from single drive failures. So far the backup server only needed to rescue us from human error - in error deleted folders and such. The only other times we used it was for test. When we replaced two of our servers a couple of months ago we decided to do a restore of our backup to the new server, rather than the usual copying of the data. This worked flawless. Again this is very important as a backup you can't restore is like bicycle for a fish - useless.

This system as such do not give you any specific options for going back to a particular date, but we don't really need that.. The main part is that it is mostly automated and therefore cannot be forgotten.

Edit: One reason for going for hard disks is that you do not need any specific hardware to start restoring computers. With tape systems you always need to ensure that you have a spare tape drive off site, which needs to be tested regularly so that you know it will work in case you need it. Otherwise you may find a compatible tape drive hard to find after a major catastrophe hit the company three years down the line. A backup medium without a compatible reader is also pretty useless...