[Help Needed] Creating a Backup System

[gjrud]

I have a problem: as I stated in other topic I'm a programmer in a pretty big Italian company specialized in the processing and distribution of various digital media on multiple devices, recently the Lead Programmer had an HDD failure so he brought the issue of not having a backup system to the "company's heads" for the second time, but now it has been approved. He asked me to help him out to figure out an efficient and logical way to proceed with it, I would have not accept said task if it wasn't for the fact that he offered me to assemble it and toy with the components in whatever way I find pleasing (:D).

 

I never did something similar and I have no idea how to proceed so I'm seeking help here, this is the situation and our goals with the system:

The company has multiple computers (30+?) and servers and the OS used are windows 7, windows 8, windows server, many linux distros and mac's OS. For the time being we decided that only the ones running windows 7, 8 and server will have a backup. Our "requirements" are the ability to backup the entire system, specific folders and to do during precise time frames (during the night).

 

The concept I had in mind was to use a dedicated machine in our local network that would work as a NAS and to have some sort of RAID (5? 6? 10?, I don't even understand how they work for the most part and the wiki is not helping at all :D) on said machine.

 

My questions:

1. How should I set up a system to automatically backup and store during specific time frames the entire system and specific folders (depending on the machine) on multiple computers and servers running windows 7, 8 and windows server? each backup being independent.
2. Would the system require any particular software I should know of?
3. Does the system require a specific piece of hardware or not considering that it will backup during the night when the machines are not being used?
4. Would be possible to store multiple backups per machine so that it could be possible to restore to whatever version we want?
5. Would be possible to restore a backup of a specific machine by controlling from said system and/or the computer in need?

I apologize for my English, thanks for your help.

[looney]

My questions:

1. How should I set up a system to automatically backup and store during specific time frames the entire system and specific folders (depending on the machine) on multiple computers and servers running windows 7, 8 and windows server? each backup being independent.
2. Would the system require any particular software I should know of?
3. Does the system require a specific piece of hardware or not considering that it will backup during the night when the machines are not being used?
4. Would be possible to store multiple backups per machine so that it could be possible to restore to whatever version we want?
5. Would be possible to restore a backup of a specific machine by controlling from said system and/or the computer in need?

I apologize for my English, thanks for your help.

 

The highlighted questions are about the backup servers, i cant help you there.

question number 2, so you mean RAID software or backup software?

question number 3, depends on how big the server needs to be.

 

do you know how big the array needs to be?

 

 

I recommend you to look at the link in my signature (10TB+ storage topic) you can get some hardware inspiration there.

[gjrud]

The highlighted questions are about the backup servers, i cant help you there.

question number 2, so you mean RAID software or backup software?

question number 3, depends on how big the server needs to be.

 

do you know how big the array needs to be?

 

 

I recommend you to look at the link in my signature (10TB+ storage topic) you can get some hardware inspiration there.

Thanks for your reply, with the question about software I was referring to do the backup itself, but we looked into it and we made a little code to backup a specific folder of the computer and we integrated it in the program we use to monitor when and how much we are working (like the time card you stamp at the beginning and the end of work turn, but in our case it's an usb drive and it stops counting the time worked after five minutes of inactivity). For the servers we figured out that a backup limited to the sensible data is more logical compared to a full system backup. The sql server is already configured to do a full backup of the databases every day (we opted against incremental/differential) and it will always keep seven of them (one per day of the week).

We are currently setting up backup methods for Exchange, Tema Fonudation Server and Share Point.

 

At the moment the machine storing the data it's an old desktop with 2 3TB HDD in raid 1 but we already ordered the pieces for a machine that will use more disks and a dedicated RAID controller for RAID 6. 

 

Thanks for your help :D