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Does anyone have any idea, how to backup a large exchange DAG? And I mean really large, >100TB. Any reasonable ideas are welcome.

I'm not sure how to improve the question. No, it's not hypothetical, it's very practical. I'm not sure what more facts one needs. It's in one DAG with many (smaller) databases. Is that a bad design? Why?

Yes, one way is to put it on 100 or so tapes. One full backup. Are there any other ways? Other ides? That's why I am asking.

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Fix the design first, this is a pathological setup! – pfo Apr 18 '12 at 14:12
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pfo has it right... why is EVERYTHING in ONE DAG? – SpacemanSpiff Apr 18 '12 at 14:15
Is this a hypothetical question? – Dan Apr 18 '12 at 14:17

closed as not constructive by Chris S♦ Apr 18 '12 at 14:14

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1 Answer

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You need to define how much data you're willing to lose if you restore (your recovery point objective) and how long you can afford to wait while recovering this (your recovery time objective). The more aggressive these objectives, the more money you'll need to spend.

The lowest common denominator is tape. You can write your dataset to 20 or so tapes, and ship a complete set offsite just in case for a fairly low investment. You'll need backup software and a tape drive, as well as tape media. Tape is an enormously dense way to store backups, and fairly cheap considering.

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