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IST Backup Service

The 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 UW.

Service Availability

The IST Backup Service is available to staff, faculty and departments at the University of Waterloo. 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: Sun Solaris, IBM AIX, SGI IRIX, Redhat Linux, Microsoft Windows, Apple MacOS. Refer to NetWorker installation instructions 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 enrollment and then an annual fee each May.

Category Backup size 1 Annual fee 5
A - Basic service Average 2 under 5 GB per month 3 $150
B - Small server Average from 5-20 GB per month $360
C - Medium server Average from 20-50 GB per month $600
D - Large server Average from 50-100 GB per month $900
E - High volume Average over 100 GB per month $9 per GB/year 4

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)

To understand the level of backup each day, consult the sample backup schedule.

Workstations and Laptops

Workstations and laptops are backed up according to the same schedule, but laptops are backed up during the day instead of the evening. That process runs each hour between 5am and 4pm each day and backs up any client system that has not been backed up in the past 24 hours.

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 data from backup using the recovery facilities of Legato netWorker. Since the instructions vary by platform, refer to the data recovery instructions for assistance. In difficult situations, please request help from IST via the Request System or by calling the IST Help Desk at x84357.

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

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.
WeekSunMonTueWedThuFriSat
1dailydailydailydailydailyfull backupdaily
2dailydailydailydailydailyweeklydaily
3dailydailydailydailydailyweeklydaily
4dailydailydailydailydailyweeklydaily
5dailydailydailydailydailymonthlydaily
6dailydailydailydailydailyweeklydaily
7dailydailydailydailydailyweeklydaily
8dailydailydailydailydailyweeklydaily
9dailydailydailydailydailymonthlydaily
10dailydailydailydailydailyweeklydaily
11dailydailydailydailydailyweeklydaily
12dailydailydailydailydailyweeklydaily

Last updated by Martin Timmerman on Friday, 17-Dec-2010 07:45:27 EST