our office wants to build a new server to handle our data, over the last 10 years our data was stored on CDs, DVDs, HDDs but now they want all of it in one place that is attached to the network for everybody in the office to access it. the data is 20TB new data and the rest is old, the important now is to store these 20tb and gradually store the other 30tb over time. so what is the best solution to do ? we thought of getting an hp server and connect it to an external enclosure that either had tape drives or HDDs (we haven;t decided yet) or to get a NAS server and connect it to the hp server. what should we do because this is new for us ...
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This question seems a bit open-ended and also leans towards product recommendations both of which are not welcome here according to the FAQ. – Dmitri Chubarov Sep 29 '12 at 13:21
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Nods. Close to 'please do my job for me'. However on a positive note: First think of what you need. How fast do you need to access this data. Is it OK for a user to wait while a tape gets loaded? As well as 'can I still read those old CDs?' (If more than 2 years old do no assume that you can read all of them). And what happens if there is a theft or fire? Where are my secondary copies of the backup? – Hennes Sep 29 '12 at 13:23
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vague question indeed.
With no experience You should probably go commercial (e.g. Nexenta, EMC, NetAPP).
But if You have the nerve to do it DIY:
http://blog.backblaze.com/2011/07/20/petabytes-on-a-budget-v2-0revealing-more-secrets/
Like Dimitri said, Your don't even say if Your data needs to stay hot (or do You?)
If You don't have the ressources for big iron already maybe tape should still be considered strongly.
Regards,
Martin
Martin
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the backblaze is a very interesting idea, i might actually try to do it if i could get all the parts needed for it, if not then a commercial solution would be the answer – a-bomb Sep 29 '12 at 14:19
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For storing that much data in a central, accessible, networked location you're talking about a file server, yes. You probably want a server specially designed for use as a NAS server. I'm familiar with the Dells, but all the major OEMs offer them. I'm actually sitting not even one foot away from a Dell NAS server with 24TB RAW disk space, that's expandable by hooking it into disk/storage shelves that you can buy and populate with disks.
Your options for backing up that much data are basically to get a big LTO tape library or get a big disk array. Especially if you're talking about actual backups, with a retention schedule (so it's more than just a second copy of your data), the size of your backup media need to be much larger than the amount of data you're backing up, because you'll be storing multiple copies of most of that data, at least with a traditional backup solution.
Which would be why I don't like traditional backup solutions, and prefer a different approach, below.
I'd get an Avamar. (Warning, they are expensive, and I don't know if there are any competing products with similar functionality at the moment.)
They're a family of disk-to-disk backup systems with deduplication at a file-segment level and a lot of other very nifty, very useful features. I recently replaced a large tape library and several external tape drives with two Avamar nodes (the 2nd just provides an "off-site" location for our backups in the event of a disaster-recovery situation, and for legal compliance).
HopelessN00b
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the problem that the question is vague is because most of these hardware are not available in our country, so we want the least expensive solution, i asked some resellers for hp and dell and i got very high prices for tape drives and anything related to them. 2nd is because this is my 1st time to get into anything server related or nas related so i actually don't know much about them. all the old data can be read my problem is with the new hardware they want which is totally new for me so i thought asking might help, not that i want the job to be done for me or anything – a-bomb Sep 29 '12 at 14:04
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after searching we found that maybe an NAS server is enough for our needs, even though it will be shipped from the USA but that's the only way to get it. – a-bomb Sep 29 '12 at 14:10