Top 10 backup Problems and Solutions for network administrators

The amount of data produced by the company is growing exponentially. Such a large amount of data is very important for companies. Therefore, any byte must be backed up to cope with any accidental deletion, hardware errors, or actual disasters we mentioned earlier. Everyone knows that data must be saved. But how can we achieve Backup management without the network administrator's full effort?

Obviously, this problem has been concerned by many backup software companies. Backup Software is an industry of millions of dollars, and from the vendor's publicity, it is extremely challenging. Through SearchSystemsManagement, we can see many Backup management challenges and challenges faced by the network administrator. At the same time, we will try to find a solution to this problem.

Enter the topic immediately. The following are major backup management challenges and solutions.

1. compress the backup window.

In the past, the company started the backup process only after everyone went home at every night. This is not applicable now, said Scott McIntyre, vice president of Legato's Product Management for Strategic Alliances. "The company needs to run 24 hours a day seven days a week ."

As one of the creators and executive vice presidents of Computer Associates, Russell Artzt also acknowledges that "backup is ongoing every night, but the window is getting smaller and smaller. Over the years, we have been committed to compressing backup windows as much as possible ." As the data volume increases and the backup time decreases, there will no longer be backup windows for all practical purposes.

Solution: According to Artzt, the focus is on performance. "We have already combined Incremental backup, multi-channel technology and technologies from multi-server backup to multiple tapes. We have been able to back up data larger than megabytes in an hour ." McIntyre also agreed to some extent, but he also said that Legato tried to eliminate the backup window by using snapshots or fixed-point images of company data. "We are looking for methods and technologies that do not require offline or resource occupation to back up data," McIntyre said.

2. centralized backup policies for enterprises cannot be implemented.

"The early 1980s s were the golden age of computers, just like Rome. Like all things in Rome, all information is retained in a small water-cooled box in the Age of IT. Next, in the personal computer era, the company's data assets are also transferred from the core, away from IT, "said Tom Hickman, senior production manager of Connected. This leads to a wide range of security policy issues. Backup, just like security, may not be the top priority for users, although it should be at the top.

Solution: "The problem is the lack of support to ensure that data has been backed up," said Steve Susman, product manager at Storactive. Solving this problem involves not only installation policies, but also some automated processes. IT can operate on servers, but how does one back up user PC Data? This problem raises another difficulty.

3. desktop and notebook backup cannot be ensured.

About 60% of company data can be retained on desktops and laptops. Many companies are trying to make their own backups. Susman calls this method "IT free pass. As long as the user does this, We are OK ."

Solution: "We have reversed everything. We are from desktops and laptops to customer agents, and we don't need to run servers, "Susman said. Some people in the IT department control the backup content, but the backup is initiated continuously by the customer. "We may miss the backup time for many reasons," he said. Although you can run software control desktop and notebook backups on the client terminal to ensure data is protected, this means that backup is not necessarily a traditional "backup window ", in addition, the network bandwidth usage will be increased in an uncontrolled and inappropriate time.

4. network bandwidth limit.

Backup has two impacts on network bandwidth. First, a large number of scheduled server backups may interrupt the network, which is also the reason for the backup during off-peak hours, although the peak hours are disappearing, refer to problem 1 ). Second, it is the best way to back up desktops and laptops online. Of course, this may happen during peak hours. At the same time, it can also reduce network performance.

Solution: The most common solution to this problem is Incremental backup. After a full backup, only the changed data is backed up. This is what Susman created. "It's just a low-level buzz, not a pulse flooding the traffic ."

5. Search for data with a dramatic increase in storage space.

"There will be a large amount of data growth, from 50% to 100%. When the size increases by double or triple, you must focus on backup and recovery, "says Mike Adams, product marketing manager at Veritas. These large amounts of and increasing data must be stored. However, is there any way to reduce its size to meet storage and backup requirements?

Solution: One feasible method is to reduce redundancy. "70% of the data is redundant," Susman said. For current desktops, each PC has the same software. Without backing up the data, you can greatly reduce the overall storage space required. "In general, we can reduce backup data by 90% after redundancy is deleted," Hickman said.

Another way to reduce data storage is to reduce the data retention time. This depends on the transaction type, but as eVault's CTO Ray Ganong noted, "we generally recommend that you keep it online for one year before it is archived to tape ." Whether you use eVault's advanced electronic link technology or simply back up data in an online disk array, keeping the total time data is stored in more acceptable media affects the cost of storing the data. Tape is still the cheapest storage method, but this also leads to the difficulty of storing and restoring tape.

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