Good Tape Backup Software?

Veritas Backup Exec has always been a bit problematic. Odd errors that are hard to troubleshoot. False failure reports. Slow backup throughput sometimes, for no obvious reasons.

So I've been wondering what products are out there in the same price range ($3000-5000 to protect 10 servers) that are good and solid. BTW that price range automatically excludes Netbackup or Legato.

Oh, and it has to run on Windows, but it would be good if it was able to back up *nix systems. Also has to be able to backup open files, Exchange 2003 and SQL 2000 dbs.

Comments

[Chris Kinsman]

Please post if you find one!

[Pete]

I've used BE, Yosemite Tapeware, and CA ArcServe. I like Tapeware, it is very simple to use once you get used to the interface. I use it on Windows and Linux boxes. I don't know if it is hugely better than BE though.

[Greg Hughes]

I can't remember the price model, but I can tell you that Veritas' NetBackup Datacenter is leaps and bounds better than Backup Exec. I know it costs more, but not sure how much more. If backup exec is causing you grief like it did for me in the past, it might be worth seeing if the Netbackup product is within your budget.

[Alex Scoble]

Heh,a bit of cross commenting between our blogs...cool.

Actually, Netbackup is something like 5 times more expensive than Backup Exec. At least it was last time I checked.

[Greg Hughes]

Yours, it's the I replied to your reply to my reply to... Uhh... Gotta be a better way. Heh.

I didn't realize the cost was 5x more. Wow.

I've tried Acronis' TrueImage Enterprise before, and liked it for smaller applications. I am told they have added tape drive support, so thery might be worth checking out. Their workstation backup version is kind of cool, too. Their story is about bare-metal backup and restore capabilities:

http://www.acronis.com/enterprise/products/ATIESWin/new.html

[Rich Snow]

Hi Gents,

I have to say that Backup Exec was a big improvement over ArcServe (now CA Brightstore)
ArcServe had a tendency to mysteriously start archiving files off to tape. And it was a real pain. Was glad to get away from that to BE.
Maybe ArcServe is 'better now'...

I agree that BE is being a pain these days.
It does work, but version 9.1 has an 'upgraded'
user interface that is painful to navigate. And it has a tendency to complain about things that are not critical. Example: I did a user backup this morning which "failed" because the secondary IDR file location is offline. The backup is just fine, but this report would send you ballistic figuring that out! Who cares about a disaster recovery file when I just want a copy of this guy's hard drive?

Legato supports *nix...
In the past I had heard extremely bad things about Legato. But they have a new owner these days so the jury is out.

Someone recomended Syncsort to me at the AIIM
conference a couple weeks ago. They can do open file backups and the like & they support *nix.
Its 'on my list' to check out their Backup Express.

[Rich Vieira]

Hi I guess I am late to this party. Just found this site from Computer World's article.
We use Brighstore version 11 at our company. It has added modules to support back up of Open Files along with *nix systems. We also use the Lotus Notes module to back up our MX system. Good day mates.

[Nathan Strimling]

Since Symantec bought BE the product may get better (or possibly worse) depending on how they handle it. They also bought V2i Protector(pretty cool product) so I'm wondering if they will integrate the two productions into a recovery suite.

As for the interface I expect it will be "Symantecized" to mirror their other products. Not necessarily a bad thing, their other products are easy to navigate in my opinion.

[Brent Gee]

Similar price range to Veritas BE is Retrospect. The multi-server product handles unlimited servers and clients, has *nix client support, and has add-ons for proactive backups, SQL and Exchange backups as well. Since it originally started as a Mac-only backup, it has some quirks that make it seem non-Windows friendly in the interface, but it works solid. We've been using it for 4 years now, and have the scripts setup so that we get very few false positives.

By the time you purchase all the add-ons and maintenance agreements, you will be close to the $5k limit you set. Note also that EMC purchased Dantz/Retrospect late last year, so I don't know how they will integrate Legato and Retrospect.

[Matt Harvey]

My first instinct is to say, "Abandon tape entirely, and do all your backups to disk or some other type of random-access removeable media." Several recent studies showed that backing up to IDE disks is cheaper per-MB than tape, and disks are SO much easier to deal with.

SyncSort is the best thing going, in my opinion, for software. Pricy, though. The solutions we've done with SyncSort were WAY out of your price range, so I'm not sure what they have for the lower-cost market.

I've used Dantz/Retrospect for some backup-to-disk applications, and it is pretty reliable in my experience.

My recommendation for SQL Server databases is to NEVER trust the "open-file backup" products to back them up -- always do a SQL Server backup to a file and let your backup software back THAT up instead. Makes for more work upon restoring, but it avoids having backup software poking around in your live SQL database. I've had many databases screwed up that way!

[Peter Thomas]

I am using BackupAssist, which basically manages ntbackup. Its cheap and cheerful,it works and its a lot faster than fiddling with batch files to automate ntbackup. There is an option for SQL server, but I don't see the point of that. It doesn't restore - you just use NTBackup for that.

[Claire]

SyncSort, in the incarnation one of our clients currently uses (2.15d), is not terribly reliable. Current release, 2.3, has a much nicer UI and has many more features. The number of features are directly correlated to the number of $ you throw at the vendor.

If BEX 2.3 is as stable as the release we are using, I would not recommend it. Support is good, but it gets wearing when you have to speak with them as often as we have done. Also, the new release appears to be exceedingly NetWare hostile if you have any of those relics in your environment. We are likely going to scuttle BEX and go with CommVault.

However, you might take a look at Legato--they have an offer to migrate your data for free if you should choose their product. Check out their FAQ, it might be worthwhile if you need to keep archival data: http://www.legato.com/safeswap/faq.htm

[tom]

i have used another good backup tool
http://www.yaodownload.com/utilites/backup/winbackup/

[Paul]

HP Data Protector. It rocks. Probably not in the same price range, but if you're in the market for an autoloader, most HP hardware comes bundled with it.

[Chad]

Yes, I agree that BE is very problemattic for stupid reasons that are hard to troubleshoot. For them to be on like version 10, it should have almost 0 bugs.

Tape drives in general are faulty and error prone in nature. IT is definately old technolgy that needs to be upgraded.

The best and most reliable approach I have seen and used is the Iomega REV drives. They are basically removable harddrives that hold 35/90 GB and can even be accessed like a HD with a drive letter. Accessing files is instantaneous and require no restore process.

Their software sucks just as much as BE and the rest so I wrote my own.

[Grimm]

we use B.E. 9.1 it as far as back up's go it works. but do not expect much from their IDR process. frankly i think your money may be better spent on a ghost / clone program and then using something like zmanda networks back up software. but i am far from the expert. i would look at function first and price second. i am sure if you called a CO. and explained you were looking to beta test their ware's, they wil find a way to work it with u.

[Jimmy]

2 words. Tilana Reserve. I haven't used tape back up ever since. You can simply set what folders or file types to backup and it does the rest. Works seamlessly while i'm working on my computer. www.tilana.com is their website.

[Chris]

Try BakBone: www.bakbone.com

[bryan]

STAY AWAY from Bakbone. Their support is absolutely horrible and they will make you cough up piles of cash for every little thing, including repair patches. Plus, the software is mediocre at best. We have been using it for a few years now and I'm at about my wits end with that company.

[John]

Acronis is pretty good. We use it for server imaging and stuff. However their support sucks very bad. Hope you don't need support or your screwed. We are premium support and even their sales guys can't get us help when we need it.

[shirjan]

Dear
i have problem in my veritase backup software before it was working properlly beucase right now when i insert a new tape so first it give the message to overwrite when i click on OK so it give the message that tape media has not found so if anyone know about such problem please help me
thanks

[Derek]

I use Backup Exec 9.1 but have also used in the past Arcserve and Tivoli etc and have come to the conclusion that at some point they will all have their issues. It would be nice to move away from tape to disk but this all depends upon the amount of data you want to archive, in my case I am approaching 1TB a day so disks are out and I have a number of installations around the UK. Currently I have a Backup Exec instance that for no apparent reason has suddenly become very slow, this may be due to a dirty drive, bad media, possible poor connection to the drive (external). If the server has been moved it's a good idea to check the pins on the SCSI cable to see if any have been bent, I have also been told that JAVA updates can affect Vertas but i've never seen it.
On the whole I preffer Veritas BE but like I said, it does have its issues...