[Veritas-bu] What are you NOT backing up?

guys, please remove veritas-bu-admin from your CC list.

On Thu, 19 May 2005, Michael F Lavelle wrote:

> David,
>         I do notice you are a vendor's shill.
>
>         What are your error rates for backup jobs?
>         Abbott Laboratories has daily error rates for all backup jobs less
> than 0.4% for all jobs run, including all error code 41, 54, and 196
> failures.
>
>         Hope to see you next week if you are in Chicago.
>
>
>  Michael F. Lavelle                               Abbott Labs,
>  Sr. Storage Engineer, CIT                   100 Abbott Park Rd,  AP14B-1
>  Phone: 847.937.1195 (Fx:935.9725)   Abbott Park  IL  60064-6042
>
>
>
>
>
>
> David Rock <dave-bu AT graniteweb DOT com>
> Sent by: veritas-bu-admin AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
> 05/19/2005 10:00 PM
> Please respond to David Rock
>
>
>         To:     veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu, veritas-bu-admin AT 
> mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
>         cc:
>         Subject:        Re: [Veritas-bu] What are you NOT backing up?
>
>
> * Michael F Lavelle <Michael.F.Lavelle AT abbott DOT com> [2005-05-18 18:28]:
> > David,
> >         Even if your backup policies are set to backup a certain
> directory
> > tree or filesystem, the goodies' coverage script will not tell you
> > anything about frequency of backups or retention.
> >         More importantly, no 3rd party tool will inform you about
> > dependencies an application has on all data, binaries, configuration
> > files, device drivers, etc...  That is still something you and your
> > customers have to define and prove thru DR testing.
>
> Well, duh!
>
> You will notice I didn't claim anything about frequency or retention, or
> dependencies between applications and data. If you _are_ relying on
> someone else to tell you how to do your job or how to run your
> business, you're crazy. I was simply pointing out that I saw something
> that has the potential to fill a gap that is a pain point for us and
> thought sharing would be a good thing.
>
> Storage Console _does_ help you see information about frequency
> (indirectly) by making it obvious if something has not been backing up
> for a while (displays last successful backup). As for retention, even SC
> has a ways to go with policy management reporting. I've posted my own
> version of policy reporting that includes vault information. last I
> checked, no one else, commercial or otherwise, has attempted to
> reconcile the polices to the vault profiles.
>
> You have to remember we are talking about backup reporting here, and
> ways to make that easier. Veritas certainly doesn't give you crap to do
> that. Their tech couldn't even get Command Central _installed_, let
> alone working after three weeks during our eval process. So you have
> three choices; live with the sub-standard reporting in NBU, write your
> own stuff and maintain it forever (which I am), or buy something to do it.
>
> I'm not the only customer that likes Storage Console, either. Seems to
> me that I have heard only good things from other people on this list
> about it. It's _not_ a magic bullet. If it was, there wouldn't be other
> products out there, but it's damn good at what it does. we looked at a
> half a dozen products over 6 - 8 months before buying it because it was
> the best one out there for us. It might not be the right solution for
> you.
>
> So before labeling me as a shill, try to keep in mind that I'm an
> overworked, underpaid NBU admin like the rest of the poor saps on this
> list. We all have the same problems with NBU, we've all been there at
> crunch time trying to explain why a file wasn't recoverable. backups
> suck, plain and simple. No one cares about it until it's too late, and
> then it's YOUR head because some moron neglected to mention that new
> mountpoint. I have 6 Master servers with 18 media servers backing up
> 1400 client machines in 3 different geographic locations. Ever try
> running 6 Java GUI's at the same time?
>
> I'm simply stating that a product that *I* recommended my company
> purchase, because it will make our awareness of our environment better
> so our customers' data is protected, has come out with a new feature
> that makes it that much better. I _still_ recommend anyone that needs a
> good NBU reporting tool really should take a look at Aptare's product.
>
> --
> David Rock
> david AT graniteweb DOT com
>
>
>

____________________________________________________________________________
Doug Hughes                                     formerly of Auburn University