If
backups could be totally automatic, I'd feel more confident,
but only if I regularly checked that it had worked !. Unfortunately,
the only time we really think about backups is when a disk fails,
but someone's got to remember to change the tape every day.
Consider
two very different approaches
Tape
drive on the server, server in a secure room.
+
Server OS aware, important for some databases
+ Works even if the LAN is down
- Out of site, out of mind
- No tape = No backup
Tape
drive & HDD on a workstation, server in a secure room
+
1st Copy to HDD exists as backup, even without tape
+ Tape drive "In the face" of operator, all the
time
+ Backup tapes, and drive never in the same room as the server
- NOT Server OS aware, important for some databases
Of
course you could do a Server tape backup, & copy to a workstation
HDD !
Thinking
about a Tape Archiving Strategy
Most
people have either a week or two weeks worth of tapes and
cycle round. That's good, so long as you notice a file is
missing within the 1 or 2 weeks. Consider archiving a tape,
once a week (month). That way you will have a copy of all
files that survive a week (month), and you won't keep using
tapes until they fail. Cost = 52 or 12 tapes per year, compared
with "????" for even a single lost file.
