new backup setup

[Lynne Desrochers]

We are changing our backup setup. The IT company came out today with the new hardware and configuring the backup software. I hadn't heard from them all day and so I reached out to them at 4:30 to see what their plan was. The tech said he was going to kick off a full backup tonight at 6:00 pm. I told him that we have an online backup and gave him the kickoff times of the different shares. He said he didn't know we had an online backup.
Question for you all, should we be running a full backup on a weeknight, not knowing how long the process will take? We've had a problem in the past with this, so I don't want to walk in on a mess tomorrow morning.
Thank you for any thoughts...

[Mark]

I think that is potentially a difficult question to answer for you due to the variables involved.

I can tell you that I run a full backup every night (to tape still).  And we backup somewhere around 600-800GB.

[Lynne Desrochers]

So that being said, you would let it run tonight? I just know when we first tried to backup using veeam it was an issue with taking too long and we had to kill it in the morning so that we could work (it was totally bogging down the network).
We have recently updated the veeam software and are using different hardware, but I would think just to be on the safe side it should wait.
Also, I think my biggest issue is with the lack of communication of what they were doing, but that's another topic all together.

[Mark]

My first issue would be that the people you are getting backup service from didn't even know what you were using for backup!

Secondly, if he is "testing" a full backup I'd probably kick that off on a weekend.  Again, depends on some variables.  If this backup is run across a separate network that everything else and wont effect the already scheduled backups in any way,  then it might not matter.

My opinion anyway.

[Lynne Desrochers]

Mark, I fully agree with you on your first issue.  And testing it over the weekend was my gut reaction as well.
Thank you.

[Jeff Zylstra]

I agree with Mark that your IT guys not knowing what is going on is a huge issue.  The other question/issue that I had was the network slowdown you mentioned.  Are you pulling this data over the network?  If so, it would seem that there may be a better way to do that unless you're backing up more than one server that would require doing it over the network. 

I use an external, fireproof IOSafe backup that is connected to the server via an eSATA connection which is very quick and highly reliable.  It allows me to copy the backup file to other drives or locations without bogging down the server or overall network.  That might be a cheap intermediary step if this becomes more of an issue. 

The other issue I've found that really affects backup times is the "verify" function where the contents of the hard drives are compared to the backup files.  In our system, this can DOUBLE the backup times, and it can not be done during working hours because the contents of the hard drives change when they're accessed and won't match the backups.

Like Mark said, you need to do FULL backups and get your IT guys in synch with what your wishes and current backup procedures are.  JMO

[DebAmstutz]

I didn't feel like starting a new thread, just wanted to say that I got the new backup drives working all by myself for once.  I looked at the configuration of the ones that we had, found instructions on how to change drive letters, and both of the drives I changed have run successful backups!  I did learn that when I change the drive letter, I need to leave it plugged in and let a backup run on it so the letter retains the change.  I saved the agency the fee the IT guy would charge and I learned something new in the process. 

[Toni Forte]

I didn't feel like starting a new thread, just wanted to say that I got the new backup drives working all by myself for once.  I looked at the configuration of the ones that we had, found instructions on how to change drive letters, and both of the drives I changed have run successful backups!  I did learn that when I change the drive letter, I need to leave it plugged in and let a backup run on it so the letter retains the change.  I saved the agency the fee the IT guy would charge and I learned something new in the process.

Way to go Deb!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[DebAmstutz]