Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about ITS Backup Services

• How much do backup services for servers cost?
• What are the system requirements for Managed Backup (Symantec NetBackup)?
• How do I calculate how much storage my server(s) will need for Managed Backup (Symantec NetBackup)?
• What are the system requirements for Unmanaged Backup?
• What 3rd-party software does ITS recommend for Microsoft operating systems for Unmanaged Backup?
• Can I connect to the backup service from off campus?

How much do backup services cost?

Storage costs the same on both platforms: $1,500.00 per terabyte (TB) per year (with a minimum of 1 TB).

Note: Unmanaged Backup services have an associated setup cost of $125.00 (one hour of setup time); Managed Backup (Symantec NetBackup) setup fees total $475.00, due to required licenses from Symantec and the significant amount of configuration that is needed.

What are the system requirements for Managed Backup (Symantec NetBackup)?

Symantec has information about NetBackup support located on their Veritas NetBackup: System Requirements page.

How do I calculate the storage my server(s) will need for Managed Backup (Symantec NetBackup)?

Symantec Netbackup is an automated backup service that works based on pre-defined schedules. Your backup schedule will strongly influence the total storage space you will need. In order to calculate your storage space needs, consider the following:

• Full Backup - This is a complete backup of every file on every local drive of your server. External drives that are connected to your server via Fiber Channel or iSCSI are also considered local.
• Differential Backup - This is a backup of every file that has changed or been added since your last full backup.
• Retention Length - This is the length of time that you set to retain your data. To use space mostly efficiently, ITS recommends a retention length of 3 months for full backups and 2 weeks for differential backups.

The frequency and retention length of backups strongly influences the total size. For example, if your server has 100 GB of data, and you would like weekly full backups to be retained for 3 months, you will need 1,200 GB of storage space.

Calculating differential backups can be challenging. For normal file systems, they are usually small compared to the overall size of the full backups, but databases can make them very large because they consist of a few very large files that change frequently. ITS can provide you with storage consumption reports to assist with your department's planning needs.

What are the system requirements for Unmanaged Backup?

Virtually any network operating system that supports Network File System, Version 3 (NFSv3) protocol and hard-mounting options can use the Unmanaged Backup service. Microsoft operating systems do not natively support this protocol, and third-party software, which departments must purchase on their own, is required in order to use NFSv3 on these operating systems. ITS strongly suggests that customers using Microsoft operating systems use the Managed Backup (Symantec Netbackup) service.

What 3rd-party software does ITS recommend for Microsoft operating systems for Unmanaged Server Backup?

ITS does not explicitly support configuration of clients to connect to NFS. Microsoft Services For UNIX or Hummingbird NFS Maestro are products which provide this functionality to Microsoft Operating Systems.

Can I connect to the backup service from off campus?

No. For performance reasons, ITS requires that backup service customers have static, USCNet IP addresses.