About IST backup service

The Information Systems and Technology (IST) Backup Service is a centrally managed service designed to offer departments, system administrators and faculty a reliable, high-performance, low-cost solution for backing up servers and workstations at the University of Waterloo.

Service availability

The IST Backup Service is available to staff, faculty and departments at the University. Any system (server, workstation, laptop, etc.) that runs the Legato NetWorker client software can be backed up. At the present time, client software exists for the following operating systems:

• Linux

• Microsoft Windows

Refer to the Installing EMC NetWorker Clients for getting the client software installed on various platforms.

Charging rates

The cost for the IST Backup Service is an annual fee based on anticipated usage for the year. Users of the service are charged annually in advance on May 1 of each year. Current users of the IST Backup Service are categorized according to current usage patterns. New users will experience three months of backup service to determine the appropriate category and then will be charged a pro-rated annual fee based on month of enrolment and then an annual fee each May.

Pricing notes

1. Backup size is the size of the data as stored on the backup server.

2. The volume of backup will change each month, especially with a full backup once every three months. The category of usage is based on average volume over a six month period. That time period will include two full backups and many incrementals.

3. To achieve the pricing of basic service will require some ongoing work and monitoring on the part of the owner or system administrator of the machine. That configuration will involve identifying which portions of the file system should and should not participate in the backup process. Typically, users who choose this option do not backup operating systems and application software that are easily restored to running state, but do backup user data that is difficult or impossible to re-create.

4. IST would like to discuss backup strategies and pricing for any server which has over 100 GB of backup data per month. This is to ensure that the backup service has adequate capacity to provide the service and to provide stable pricing for the owner of the server.

5. Annual fees listed are effective October 2007.

Backup schedule

At a preset time on the evening of each day the server starts backing up registered clients. The data to be backed up is compressed and copied to a large disk facility connected to the backup server. Daily backup data is only stored on this disk facility until it is erased. Weekly, monthly and full backup data is copied from the disk facility to a tape library in a second location. An online index is maintained on the server. This index contains information about files that have been backed up within the last six months.

The current backup schedule is as follows:

• a full backup once every three months

• monthly backup once per month when a full backup is not performed (only files changed since the last full backup are saved)

• weekly backup once per week when monthly or full backups are not performed (only files changed since the last monthly backup are saved)

• incremental backups on other days (only files changed since the last backup are saved)

Sample backup schedule

The IST Backup Service provides one full backup every three months. To balance the load on the service about 1/12 of the servers experience that full backup each weekend. Below is a sample 12 week calendar showing the level of backup each day.

Data retention

Backup data is kept on disk and tape for various lengths of time depending on the level of backup. This data retention is to facilitate recovery from complete disk failure and to facilitate recovery from various specific dates in the past.

Subject to review of actual data loads, the current schedule for deletion of backup data is as follows:

• daily backups are deleted after two weeks

• weekly backups are deleted after 13 weeks

• monthly backups are deleted after seven months

• full backups are deleted after 13 months

Data and file recovery

In most cases, users and system administrators can recover files and folders that have been backed up by NetWorker. The user is able to specify a "good-before" date and time so that previous versions of files can be recovered.

The recover procedure for Windows clients is graphical.

Recovery requests from backups older then six months will require manual interaction with IST staff.