Hello list,

 

We are currently in the process of scrapping our old backup solution (windows nt client backup), and going with Bacula.  I have been tasked with setting up a test environment for this.  As of right now I have bacula backing up 6 clients to an external SD.  The DIR & SD are located on the same server for testing purposes (The SD is an external 1TB drive for testing purposes).

 

But alas, I need a little guidance on how to properly implement this.

 

This is the layout:

 

Local Servers = ~ 20 (Linux servers running oracle & windows servers running various services)

Remote Servers = ~ 10 (Linux & Windows)

Local Clients = ~150 (Windows XP, Vista)

Remote Clients = ~150 (20 off-site locations scattered across the US).

 

As of right now:

*I figured we would have a different pool for each department (accounting, legal, etc) to better manage pools. 

*The filesets are individual for each user (as each user has different things needed backed up).

*Each Department has a different Pool, along with a different Volume (max 2gb each vol) that is labeled for their department (IT001, Legal001, etc).

* The backup schedules are tailored to the department as well, to easily manage backup times across the network (so that there are not 190+ backups queued on the director waiting to backup)

* Client backups are saved for a max of 14 days, at which time the volumes will be overwritten with the newest data.

 

SD:

*Remote Clients will be backed up to a remote SD

*Local clients are backed up to a local SAN

*Servers are backed up every day (full once a week, incremental-differential during the week) to the SAN, then full back-ups to an 8-tape autoloader at the end of the week.

 

 

What Im wondering is this:

*Is this the right way to go about this?  Different Pools for different departments (I think it would be easier to maintain a scheduled backup time for each department rather than having to remember what computer backs up at what time)

*Because of the vast volume of machines being backed up, should I have 3 separate directors (Servers, Local Clients, Remote Servers)?

*The remote offices have between 5-20 clients, and 1 server at each location.  I figured that they would all report to the local director here at the main office, and back up to a SD at their remote site.  This way we can minimize the amount of traffic going through the VPN/WAN, but yet still be able to administer the restoring and backup functionality remotely in a centralized location.

 

 

Has anyone done a backup to this scale with such a large variety of servers, clients & remote clients?

 

 

Thank you for your time,

 

 

Jayson Broughton

Linux Systems Administrator

True Oil LLC

jbroughton AT truecos DOT com