Windows LAN FREE backup.

[JTsobey]

Hello:

We have a few windows 2003 servers in our environment that has close to 1TB of SQL DB's on them. They take a long time to backup, would take a long time to restore if needed (hope not).. We are looking at trying to setup a LAN FREE backup on one specific server, backup the data directly from SAN disk and backing up to tape library without using disk pool. We have not done this yet, so I have a few questions.

I have looked on the internet and found mention of a couple of software packages that "could" be used?

#1 - SANegry
#2 - Tivoli Storage Manager for Storage Area Networks

So the environmet as I said earlier is a Windows 2003 R2 server infrastructure, the location of the SQL disk is located on a SAN IBM XIV. If this works, we will also be looking at adding the same function using some DS4800's. If someone could point me in the correct direction, it would be appreciated. Also, if anyone has any pointers or pitfalls for this subject it would be great. If you have any websites with support for the installs please let me know.

Thanks for help,

 

[JTsobey]

Thanks for the response.


Yes we are using TSM 5.5 at the moment. We do have HBA's connected to the servers and SAN, server is a mix of 2 and 4 Gig. The SAN is a XIV with a SVC front end which is 8 Gig. The DS 4800's are 4 Gig. We have hundreds of servers backing up every night, so we are looking at this to offload from the LAN network. So when you say "You'll need to define each Windows client as a server on the TSM server", do you mean that we will have to setup further client nodes.

Is the name of the software that you are talking about "Flash Copy Manager" or "Advanced Copy Services"? I seen these names also come up after posting this? What software did you use?

Thanks again,

 

[GregE]

JT, just to add..........TSM sees the storage agent as a server, because really, it IS a small TSM server (without the DB) and in your setup will be a library client. Your TSM server is the library manager. The users guide is very good, and also search the forum here, there have been many post about storage agent, some with actual config postings you can see for examples.

 

[rore]

JTsobey,
You didn't mention your library type model, but if you can have 2 or more drives available (LTO4 or superior) for the backup of your biggest MSSQLs you might have dramatic improvement using LanFree over 1Gb network. You can use the stripe option to backup your DBs to several drives simultaneously. Your mentionned back-end storage should be able to provide the throughput. You can potentially move 1TB in a couple of hours. Not strictly required but recommended for data integrity and performance: you will need additional HBA ports to zone to the tape drives. TSM LanFree requires additional license.

 

[JTsobey]

Thanks to all for the help on this subject. I now have some good information to move forward with this. I will be testing to see how things operate etc..


Again, thanks for the help - much appreciated!