An Introduction to Tape Backup

An Introduction to Tape Backup

by: Linus Chang

If you run a small business, chances are you’re saving important files to a server. But what happens when disaster strikes? How are you ensuring that your files won’t be lost? Many people fail to realize that the loss of files could cripple their business. You can insure your office and equipment, but you can’t insure files. You can’t repair or buy back lost files. Ipso facto, they are lost!

This brings us to the concept of disaster recovery. What is disaster recovery? If you’re thinking that disaster recovery is about frantically trying to get back data thatกs already been lost, then you’re already behind the 8ball! Disaster recovery is about safeguarding your organizationกs data so that it can be safely restored in event of a crippling disaster. And having an industrystandard file backup strategy is undoubtedly the most important part of disaster recovery.

What you have to do is ensure that all files on the server are backed up to another storage medium tape, removable hard disk, NAS device, and so on. Most businesses choose to use tape. Letกs look at how you can set up a tape backup strategy for your own business.

1. Tape the perfect backup medium

Isn’t tape an anachronism in the age of optical disks, removable hard drives and a plethora of whizbang, randomaccess storage media? Tape is indeed a dinosaur in relative terms, but itกs ideal for backup. Tape is slow, but can store a lot of data… one midrange tape should be enough to backup your entire server. Plus, tape is extremely cheap midrange tapes cost around $20 each.

2. When should you backup?

Typically, tape backup is performed at the end of each day. Just put in the tape and let the backup process run overnight. If your server ever suffers a catastrophic disaster, you have at least saved all your files from the previous day.

3. Tape Rotation

The ideal tape backup solution would involve using a new tape for each backup. This means purchasing a new tape for every day of your businessกs operations. This is hardly costeffective for your business. Tape is cheap, but not that cheap!

This is why we speak of tape rotation. Tape rotation means to reuse tapes from previous backups. The simplest tape rotation scheme is to have one tape for each day of the working week. Tapes are labeled Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

You can restore data from any one of the tapes in your library, or in this case, any day in the past the week. This strategy requires only five tapes, but only provides one weekกs data backup history.

4. GrandfatherFatherSon A Case Study

The grandfatherfatherson schedule is the most widely used method, and involves backing up data in the following way:

daily on the กson tapesก

weekly on the กfather tapesก

monthly – on the กgrandfather tapesก

This system is far more powerful than the fivetape rotation, but requires more tapes.

This strategy provides you with the ability to restore data from the last week, plus any Monday over the last month, plus any month for as many monthly tapes as you have. Variations on this scheme are available, and provide a tradeoff between the number of tapes required, and the number of monthly tapes available.

5. Different types of backup

Different types of backups are available in backup software.

Full all files, system data

Differential all files added or changed since the last full backup

Incremental all files added or changed since the last full, differential or incremental backup

Daily all files added or changed on the day of the backup

A Full backup will copy all files and system data to the backup media. It allows for the complete restore of all data from one single tape.

Differential, Incremental and Daily are partial backups are designed to reduce amount of data backedup to the media, resulting in faster backups. To restore data using one of these backups, the last Full backup tape will also be required, along with any other partial backups since the last Full backup.

6. Tape backup software

At this point you may be thinking that performing tape backup is a complex task. Tape rotations, incremental backups… sure, you can try to do this manually, but this would make the backup process hideously difficult and prone to human error! The solution is to invest in a good piece of server backup software that will manage and schedule your tape backups for you.

What should you look for in tape backup software? For many small business owners, the price is crucial. Many brands of backup software are just too expensive in the $1000+ range and contain features that youกll never need. Look for a backup utility thatกs designed specially for small business instead. It should be simpletouse, reliable and affordable. Choose a good tape backup program and youกll be well on your way to safeguarding your files and data.

About The Author

Linus Chang is a backup expert and the lead developer of BackupAssist tape backup software that is simple and affordable, and perfect for small and medium businesses. Protect your Windows servers, including SQL Server and Exchange Server, to tape, REV drive, hard drive, NAS and more, at a fraction of the cost of other backup programs. For more information visit http://www.backupassist.com.

This article was posted on March 09

by Linus Chang

Expert Guide to DVD Camcorders

Expert Guide to DVD Camcorders

by: Kennny Hemphill

Thinking about a mini DVD camcorder? You’re not alone, itกs a rapidly growing sector of the camcorder market, with Hitachi, Sony and Panasonic all making more than one mini dvd camcorder.

These camcorders differ from regular digital video cameras in one important way they record video onto mini DVD discs, rather than DV tape. This has a number of advantages. DVD discs are more robust than tape and won’t get chewed up in the camera. Although this is thankfully a rare occurance, it scares me every time I here a strange noise coming from my camcorder, so itกs with bearing in mind.

The second advantage is that DVD discs are random access, compared to tape on which everything is recorded sequentially. This means that thereกs no need to rewind and fast forward to find the clip you’re after, just select it from the menu. Some cameras even allow you to perform basic editing functions oncamera. An additional sidebenefit is that a mini DVD camcorder doesn’t have tape heads to get worn or dirty as happens in regular mini DVD cameras.

And thirdly, you can easily watch your home movies by removing the DVD from the camera and playing it in practically any DVD player.

However, there are negative factors to. The most siginificant one is that video is encoded as MPEG2 on a mini DVD camcorder, as opposed to DV format. This means that it needs specialist software to edit you can’t just use your regular video editing program (unless it specifically supports MPEG2). And if a Mac user you’re out of luck, as there are no MPEG2 editing applications for the Mac.

Also, mini DVD camcorders tend to cost more than similarly specified mini DV cameras. And the media is also more expensive. However, if you don’t intend editing your movies and don’t mind the extra cost, a mini dvd camcorder does offer extraordinary convenience.

© Kenny Hemphill 2004.

About The Author

Kenny Hemphill is the editor and publisher of Master DVD (http://www.masterdvd.com), a website which provides information, articles, and tutorials on issues and products related to recordable DVD.

This article was posted on November 16, 2004

by Kennny Hemphill