Site Backup Policy
This page is intended to provide potential customers with information regarding the site-wide backup service offered by the Computing Division Core Support Service Department. A more detailed description of the Site Backup System (SBS) is documented in Site Backup Design Note. The guidelines presented here may change as the design and functionality of the backup system evolves.
The site-wide backup service is not intended to replace the Enstore system. The site-backup service is intended to be used to backup system information (OS) and user areas. It is not intended to be used to archive experiment data.
Please review our FAQ for questions about tape rotations, tape retention policies and ability to recover from tape failures.
- Site Backup Participation.
- Restore Requests.
- No individual Laptop's or Desktop's will be backed up.
- Database Backup Issues.
- Point of Contact. (POC)
Customers are required to provide at least one (1) point of contact for backup issues. These issues include but are not limited to:
- Coordination of backup software installation on client systems
- Notification of backup problems
- Assisting in toubleshooting backup problems.
The person designated as point of contact must have root/administrator access or it's equivalent for each machine the customer wishes to have backed up. It is strongly suggested that at least two (2) points of contact be provided so that one can back up the other.
- Unexpected Large Data Changes, Huge Size Volumes, and Network Speed Issues
- Failed Backups
- Disabling Backups
- Cost of Backup Service
To participate in site backups open a request with the Computing Division helpdesk. A CSS Backup representative will then contact you about your backup needs and a Service Level Agreeement between you and CSS will be created.
Restore requests are made through the Computing Division helpdesk. User data restore requests will be completed within 24 hours of the initial request based on 8x5x5 support. Off hour system restores for 24x7 systems can be provided and should be discussed with the CSS Backup representative.
CSS does not support backing up individual desktops or laptops. Desktops configured as part of a cluster or Desktops that serve special purposes will be considered and should be discussed with a CSS Backup representative.
The Site Backup System does not provide a native backup module for databases (Oracle, MySQL, SQL, etc). Database backups can be provided via file dumps but are dependant on changes to the database, size, etc. Database backup requests should be discussed with a CSS Backup representative.
SBS is a true incremental backup system. The system assumes one full network backup is taken and then all backups after that are incremental. The I/O and network loads to the client should be minimum as all the lower level merge processes are shifted to SBS server. However, there is a balance between how much clients can have backed up and how much the server can process within a backup window.
Incremental backups assume that daily changes in data (both size and number of files) will not exceed 10%. If the daily delta is greater than this amount, the customer POC will be contacted and the contract will need to be renegotiated. If, because of the unusual amount of daily delta there is severe disruption to the backup service,
No single volume larger than 200GB (allocated) is allowed in the current SBS, we recommended less than 100GB. This limitation is imposed so that all back-end merges and processing can complete within a single backup cycle.
The client machine should provide Gb (or above) network connectivity to the SBS servers. Slower network connections are not desirable, especially for larger volumes. Backup service may be refused or terminated if there is not sufficient network bandwidth available to back up the client system within the backup window.
The service providers have the right to refuse or suspend backups for the above offending system(s) until an agreement can be met.
The customer POC will recieve notice, via email, on the status of nightly backup jobs.Backup problems which require investigation on the customer's machine must be done by the customer. CSS is responsible for investigating problems with the central backup system and reporting to the customer POC any information which may help in debugging the problem. In addition, if the service provider determines that the failed backup is due to a problem in the central service, than an email will be sent out to the customer POC indicating the failure, any solutions and or fixes applied, and any reprocussions due to the failure.
CSS may suspend backups for a node that has failed to properly backup for more than 3 days if the reason for the failure is not the TIBS system. The POC is expected to repair the system so backups can properly run. Systems that are unreliable can cause delays and issues with the backup systems for all the customers.
Customers will be billed based on the entire amount of data that is backed up for the customer. The pricing policy is tier based and assumes the customer will stay within their tier for the duration of agreement with CSS. If the customer's data grows at a pace which places them two (2) tiers above their initial tier pricing, CSS may require additional funding from the customer. These agreements will be reviewed and renewed on a yearly basis. This will keep the agreements current with the customers needs.
The pricing is based on the cost of tape (plus labels and cleaning media). We keep 4 copies of mirrored fulls. We keep 12 copies of mirrored monthlies. We keep 14 copies of weeklies and 56 copies of daily incrementals. As you can see it takes many tapes to make a complete backup for a year that is robust and mirrored. The following table summerizes the costs of media to backup your data.
Data Size Cost less than 250GB $1000 250GB - 500GB $2000 500GB - 750GB $3000 750GB - 1TB $4000 1TB - 1.25TB $5000 1.25TB + $5000 + $1000 for each increment of 250GB over 1.5TB