Considering move from Backup Exec - lots of questions, Exchange, off-site backups, etc.
Undertaking a major overhaul of our backup system and looking for some comments and advice.
We currently have 8 servers running various versions of Symantec Backup Exec, all backing up to local tape drives. We are a bit sick of tape drive issues and are looking to consolidate to a more reliable cental backup system. Total data between all servers is ~1.4TB.
Our current plan (with Backup Exec) is as follows.
- We install a dedicated "backup server" with ~12TB of storage, running Backup Exec 2010 R2.
- We upgrade all other servers to Backup Exec 2010 R2 Remote Agents.
- We perform a full backup over the weekend (Friday night) of all servers to the backup server. This happens over a gigabit LAN connection. This backup is then duplicated to a USB 3.0 hard disk plugged into the backup server. This USB drive is then taken off-site.
- We perform differential backups every other night of the week to the backup server, again duplicating the backup to a USB 3.0 hard disk plugged into the backup server. The USB drives are taken off-site.
We'd like to consider Acronis as well, but are not very familiar with it's capabilities. Here are some questions:
- Is there a central backup (like Backup Exec + remote agents), or do all servers require full copies of Acronis?
- If full copies of Acronis are required, what is the best way to schedule backups so that I don't get multiple servers backing up at once, possibly flooding the network or backup server? Or would this not be an issue for some reason?
- I assume Acronis can schedule a full backup Friday, then differentials Monday through Thursday and repeat? And overwrite previous backups as needed?
- What would be the best way to duplicate each backup to an external drive for off-site backups?
- How is Exchange backup and restore performed? We are currently using the Backup Exec Exchange agent, and backups/restores have all been without issue.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!