A good backup is the most critical component to your disaster and recovery IT infrastructure.   Not having an intuitive process where you can test, verify, and later, use for when a disaster occurs can be very problematic.  Small and large businesses take note. We will discuss how to take immediate action and then create a long term plan.

Quick Guide Resources to Backing Up…

• BCDR
  • Managed Service Providers not only provide Business Continuity Disaster Recovery plans but the hardware associated with them.  It is integrated into their PSA for alerts of test recovery failing and the hardware itself failing.  This is ideal for anyone hosting their hardware infrastructure.  We are talking several servers in the mix and over 10 users.
• SAN and NAS Hardware Support
  • We break down hard file storage concepts so you can make best file server or backup storage choice for your organization
• Data Backup and Restore Guide 101 using Synology
  • This guide will walk you through various methods of backup using Synology hardware as an example
• Setting Up Synology NAS with a Glacier Backup
  • A very affordable way to backup
    • UPDATE:  We no longer recommend this solution.  Synology C2 is better.
• Backing up a Server from a Workstation
  • Sometimes the IT guy is not around and you gotta do what you gotta do
• Backup Images for faster Recovery from Computer Failure
  • Computer failures suck.  This makes recovery less painful
• Backup and Replication Services for VMWare ESX Hypervisors
  • Very popular service for today’s ever consolidating server infrastructure.
• Self Service Snapshot Replication and Fire Versioning
  • Great for quick recovery of accidental deletion of files and Ransomware protection
• DIY Cloud Sync… Similar to Dropbox except you own the cloud – Data Sync Services
• Perform a quick Windows Backup, Wipe, and Restore
  • Don’t do this unless you know what you are doing
• Quickbooks Backup and some other helpful QB tips
• Data Recovery and Migrating Data on a Synology NAS

  

Fun Facts:

“A company that experiences a computer outage lasting more than 10 days will never fully recover financially.  50 percent will be out of business within five years?”

70 percent of small firms that experience a major data loss go out of business within a year.

Of companies experiencing catastrophic data loss:

• 43% of companies never reopened
• 51% of companies closed within 2 years
• 75% of companies without business continuity plans fail within three years of a disaster
• Companies that aren’t able to resume operations within ten days (of a disaster hit) are not likely to survive.

Get a Full Backup Today

There are obviously a lot of choices out there for backing up and a lot of different types of network devices that require backing up.  Again, review the quick resource guide at the top of the page to see if any of those backup situations apply to you.

Not All Backup Software is Created Equal

IDrive – So much hype, so much disappointment…

I use to push iDrive for it’s flexibility in backing up workstations and file servers but iDrive has disappointed me too many times to push their product any more.  Proceed below at your own risk or simply move on to the next segment of this post.

You can get rolling with your backup today and have a little more piece of mind that you have an encrypted backup of your network data with IDrive.  Click on the link and select the 5 gig free plan.   Don’t worry about the size limitation.  Most businesses consume a lot more space than 5 gigs for their data.  The real value here is the IDrive software that comes with your 5 gig free package.  Download and install the iDrive and software on to your workstation.  Then purchase a moderately sized (TB) external hard drive for $60.    Hook the hard drive up, run the software, and adjust the settings to reflect your locally attached hard drive that you are using for backup.

Data can be found in a mapped drives location typically in a client-server environment.  Mapped drives are drives mapped to the server shares.  It is displayed in the second pic as the H, W, Y and Z drives.  Apple has similar shares called SMB shares usually linked on to the Mac desktop.  Review the illustration and select the appropriate mapped drives for backup.  Obviously, this is not the most optimal solution but it is perfect for when you are in a pinch, you have some doubts about your current backup setup, or you simply haven’t chose an appropriate backup solution for your organization but a backup is needed nevertheless.  The IDrive will perform a full backup every time.  Therefore, it won’t be confused if you alternate between external drives every a couple weeks.

 

How To Develop A Long Term Backup Solution

Disasters come in many sizes.  It’s possible the latest revision of a document wrote over all the content you wrote.  Shadow copies of files and or warm archives are important to have in this situation.  The end user tends to have access to these backups without IT support intervention by right clicking on file in windows and viewing the previous versions.  Many businesses lack this feature because:

1.  They don’t have a windows environment
2.  The windows environment is lacking the domain server environment to enact this feature

Alternatives to this come in the way of cloud based backup that allow users to recover data.  Perhaps, that’s not option due to limited user rights.  Fortunately, a lot of what we promote is the flexibility of the Synology Diskstation.  The Diskstation provides a web console called DiskStation Manager for users to login into.  From there, the administrators can access previous version of files under “Backup and Replication” if they setup and configured it.

***Please note the picture below.   Make sure you limit the number of versions.  Otherwise, these copies will over consume your Synology drive.   Also, there’s a limitation on how many shadow copies can be restored per share folder.

Please consult Synology before pursuing this option.

More Backup Options…

Idrive Package for Synology

Idrive for Synology is a bit clunky but it’s pretty nice if you get it running right.  We provided more troubleshooting material on another Synology Diskstation support post.

R-Sync

Warm archives are on on-site using some hardware form of a file server or archiving backup server.   It is common to have a SAN as a Enterprise file server solutions.  They are stored in a secured server room and may have off site replication at the colo AKA the data center usually using R-sync.  IT guys loooove R-sync.

An end users initial reaction is that you will be you’re in good hands if a SAN has redundant hard drives, stored in a secured location, and replicated to another offsite location.  Bit Locker, other viruses, fires, pissed off employees may test this optimism.

With that said, I can’t recall how many times I’ve encountered a new client where they thought they could recover from a disaster only to discover that no one performed test recoveries for the backups.  These test recoveries should be done periodically throughout the year.

Smaller businesses most likely can’t afford a SAN but can enjoy some of the great benefits with a NAS or a stereotypical file server.   These file servers tend to run 1 to 3k while entry level NAS for 5 to 20 users is 500.  The extra 2k or so for a file server requires more setup time and maintenance if you enable a lot more features.  Regardless, it’s your first tier of redundancy just like the enterprise solution.  Securing and making it fire safe may be good enough for some businesses.  However, purchasing your own basic level backup to disk solution will be the next step for server backup support San Diego.  This comes in the form of a terabyte hard drive.  Run an encrypted backup and storing it in a secured offsite location every now and then will save you on on subscription cost for cloud storage.  Again, this data must be tested and verified to prepare for a disaster/recovery scenario.

Amazon Web Services – Glacier

With cloud services going main stream, solutions such as Carbonyte, Mozy, IDrive ,and Amazon Glacier are garnering a lot of attention from businesses.  They are discovering alternatives to tape backups and the courier services like Iron Mountain for storing offsite.  Their research on the web comes down to a couple key points.

• Storage is a commodity.  They want a cheap solution.
• Some software plays nicer than others.  Intuitive backup and recovery is critical to a long term relationship.
• Customer support.  No wait times, knowledgeable people, and did I mention no wait times.

Calling a knowledgeable IT guy and asking him about R-sync will save you the most money in the end.  Honestly, go with Amazon Glacier if high bandwidth and stable site to site connections are not an available option.

To pursue happiness, follow the steps below:

https://console.aws.amazon.com is where you begin but it’s a bit overwhelming when you look at the Amazon Web Services interface for the first time.

Unfortunately, AWS free does not provide technical support. Watch the Video and read the Synology to Glacier document to learn step by step setup instructions. Then for further details, read the AWS FAQ and learn about retention and deletion of archived data.

Last learn about pricing, I backed up 84 gigs and I got billed monthly for $0.58 cents. There are pricing calculators that should provide a good estimate of data and built in AWS notifications to tell if you are exceeding your customized data limit.

And then…

Please review the following documentation for any further questions regarding Amazon Web Services used with Glacier and Snowball courier delivery option.

Glacier Import http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSImportExport/latest/DG/createGlacierimportjobs.html

Snowball https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2015/10/aws-import-export-snowball/

Server Backup Support San Diego

Cost, security, functionality, intuitiveness, and accessibility are all very important factors when considering a backup and recovery solution.  The final thought is avoid local hardware infrastructure all together and shift to almost completely cloud based solution such Box.net.  This may be practical for some young startups and small businesses but not an organization with a lot of legacy software applications that need to continue running. Also, large files from programs such as Autocad are not advisable in this environment.  Whatever the case, give it all some thought and consider what works best for your organizations workflow.  Then pull the trigger.   In the meantime, BACKUP.  Consult your favorite IT experts for Server Backup Support San Diego if you’re stuck and need further assistance.