[CentOS] CentOS Server Backup Options

Mon Mar 12 00:12:05 UTC 2012
Scott Walker <Scott_Walker at RAMSystemsCorp.com>

What do you guys recommend for backing up a small CentOS server in a
business environment.  It will have (3) 300gb drives in a raid 5 array but I
don't anticipate more than about 25gb of data that needs to be backed up
each night.
I want a lot of backups with a rotation scheme that included daily, weekly,
and monthly copies.  I want the daily copies of the data kept until the next
week, and the weekly copy being kept for four weeks, and the monthly copies
being kept for a year.

The vendor is recommending a RD1000 Removable Disk device.  This looks like
it has great specs.  Each cartridge holds 160gb (non-compressed) and the
drive costs about $420 but seems that with each removable cartridge costing
$128, we may be limited to how many cartridges we could have, thus perhaps
not retaining backup instances as long as I like.

I asked about a HP DAT160 tape drive.  Each tape holds 160gb
(non-compressed) and the drive costs about $730, and each tape only costs
about $24, so it would be economical to have lots of backup instances saved
for a long period of time.

I have been using tape and the backup rotation scheme mentioned above for
over 20 years.  The vendor is telling me they don't recommend tape drives
anymore and all of their customers are using removable hard drive for local
backups.  Am I missing something?  My instincts tell me the tape drive is
the right solution for a system with a small amount of data, where the
system is used only from 8am - 5pm (so backup speed is not critical) and
where we want to save backup instances for a long time before overwriting
them.

Any input would be welcomed.