Advantages of Frozen Image Backup; Disadvantages (03/09/2008)
... Frozen image backup involves taking a “snapshot” of the data, something like a flash photograph that is quickly taken. That snapshot is also referred to as the image of the data. When the backup occurs, it backs up not the actual files but an image of them. Frozen imaging can be called slightly different terms by different products. In Backup Exec, the Advanced Open File Option provides this ability to take a snapshot of the data source....

Full Backup (03/08/2008)
... With your system state and files backed up, you should have no problem restoring your complete system. Usually, the term “full backup” does not include a system state backup. A full backup can include all the files on any given computer but not core operating system components. Normally, software programs have a separate option for system state backup. Working with Full Backups With a full backup, you will be able to restore all the information and data that has been produced....

Incremental Backup (03/08/2008)
... Tuesday: File A is modified. File A is backed up (incremental backup). Wednesday: File B is modified. File B is backed up (incremental backup). Thursday: Files A and B are modified....

Differential Backups (03/08/2008)
... However, we now do differential backups during the rest of the week instead of incremental backups. When the server goes down on Friday, how many backups do we need to use in order to restore everything? Why, just two—Monday’s full backup and Thursday’s differential backup. Another example: Monday: Files A + B + C are backed up (full backup). Tuesday: File A is modified. File A is backed up (differential backup)....

Comparing Backup Types (03/07/2008)
... This is the general practice for organizations where huge amounts of data need to be backed up or when there are long periods between full backups. .......

The SAN storage area networking (03/07/2008)
... Your regular network would be connected to the SAN but separate. On paper, it’s brilliant—a network specifically designed for file storage only! Most importantly, it gets rid of the bandwidth problem. You can access the files without dragging fat chunks of data through your production network. To the client computers, file access will appear the same as if the files were actually hosted on file servers. However, each server is connected to the SAN, and the server’s purpose here is simply to facilitate the files that are being stored on the SAN....

Hard Drives as Backup Media (03/06/2008)
... Those drives are screwed in, constantly connected. Therefore, they are impossible to physically archive in their own storage room, as you could with tapes. If there were a physical calamity that destroyed the computers on site, the hard drive with the backup would be affected as well. There are, of course, exceptions. One is the external hard drive, which you could just plug into your computer via its printer port or USB connection....

Optical Media Backup (03/06/2008)
... It is a great place to store the photos from your digital camera at home. It is not so great to store the hundreds or thousands of gigabytes generated by users on a network. Also, the speed of writing to a CD-ROM is not as fast as writing to a hard drive. It is more or less equivalent to the speed of writing on a floppy, except with much more data involved. The DVD The DVD may replace the CD-ROM for removable storage in the near future, with its far greater capacity of at least 4....

Disadvantages and Advantages of Replication (03/06/2008)
... You need to use another server for the mirror copy, not just another backup device or another hard disk. This requires greater expense. Replication is similar to backup in that it copies data. However, it is very different in its implementation. Replication cannot replace backups, since backups provide important advantages that replication can’t provide....

The Disadvantages of Tape Backup (03/04/2008)
... You can even have a tape library with a robotic arm retrieving the backup tapes as needed, so you don’t need to worry about fiddling with all those tapes. Tape technology has advanced to the point that large amounts of data can be recorded on tape. Gigabytes can be stored on a single cassette. Simple and cheap is hard to beat, so tapes will be around for some time. So why don’t we just stop here and not look at any of the other options for backup storage? Disadvantages of Tape Backup So much of life consists not of picking the obviously best choice but weighing the advantages and drawbacks of each choice....

Common Backup Exec Options (02/28/2008)
... Autoloader/Robotic Library Support Once upon a time, if you wanted to use a robotic library with Backup Exec, you were required to purchase a special license for it. VERITAS dropped this requirement a few years ago. Robotic libraries are now supported without any additional licensing requirements. However, if the library contains more than one internal tape drive, you must purchase something called a “library expansion option” for each additional drive. Library Expansion Option (LEO) In addition to having multiple cartridge slots, some robotic libraries come with multiple drive heads....