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I am currently running CommVault and my support agreement is about to expire.

I received a quote from my managed service provider to upgrade my license renewal ($3k for the renewal), upgrade my commvault software to the latest version (I am 3 behind), migrate the commserv to a vm, migrate the media agent to a physical server, and configure some iscsi storage I will be providing for disk backup. The quote is around $10k, which is reasonable given the amount of work; however, I am not a big CommVault fan (not the most intuitive product to use) and am wondering what other options I have for less than $10k?

Most of my DR is done via vmware data recovery (I copy rsync to a file server to get spun to tape). So there are only a handful of hosts that I care about data retention and/or object level restorations: - Microsoft AD domain (two domain controllers running windows server 2008 r2) - 2 Exchange servers (windows server 2008 r2).. ~500GB - Perforce code repo ~ 2TB (Debian box) - Windows file server – 4TB (windows server 2008 r2) - Samba file server - 6TB - Microsoft Dynamics (MS SQL DB) < 200GB - A handful of linux servers (Debian/Ubuntu 64bit).. integrated clients would be nice but not necessary

Basically, I would like to retain a rolling 2 weeks of data on-site, weekly off-site rotations for 30 days, and monthly off-site rotations for 1-5 years depending.

CommVault charges an arm and a leg for their backup clients and adding or changing clients is a pain. For example, you cannot swap a linux client for a solaris client as they make you buy another.

I have considered moving to an open-source solution like zamanda, but my managed service provider claims it is a nightmare and would have problems working with my tape controllers (I have two Overland NEO 4000 LTO3 libraries -- 116 tape slots ). I have zero experience with any other solutions and need some advice.

It's hard googling good info! All I get are sales pitches or angry backup software users ranting in forums (there are a lot of these out there ;)

Anyone have a good backup experience? Anyone use CommVault and then switch to something easier? Cheaper?

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backups stink (in general), Everyone's going to have their favorites and opinions, The only thing I'll comment on that's not opinion driven is that rsyncing to a file server is not DR. Your method doesn't appear to address guest file system quiescence.

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  • thanks.. and I know everyone will have an opinion... just looking for some products/ideas to research. As for DR... VDR is a tool from vmWare that backs up to a file store (deduped) using scheduling and snapshot retention policies. I rsync VDR's backend store to a file server that has daily, weekly and monthly storage policies... I am not rsyncing the clients themselves. VDR quiesce's the clients before the snapshot Jun 1, 2012 at 19:03
  • I know what VMware data recovery is, I've had to fix the disasters caused by it. it works ok for "regular" servers but stuff like AD, exchange, and sql server many times don't quiesce properly (in fact the latest exchange CU fixes a copy on write bug) as they don't flush like regular apps(since they are expecting anyone backing them up to use shadow copies)
    – Jim B
    Jun 2, 2012 at 1:10
  • I realize that this was a loaded question to begin with and was more born out of frustration with costs and overly complex software for my needs... thanks for your input though Jun 13, 2012 at 21:25
  • frankly the agreement expiring is an excuse to evaluate the whole service. It might be time to change providers or time to bring your cloud inside. IMHO IT admins should always be able to provide option (with costs) when agreements are "up for evaluation"
    – Jim B
    Jun 14, 2012 at 15:18

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