Mac backup help needed please!

[PND]

At work, we currently have 8 Macs (MacPros and iMacs) running Snow Leopard.  A daily incremental backup of the main folders on each Mac (Mail, Documents, Work folder, etc..) is done using Silverkeeper, to a single shared external hard drive which is taken off site every night.  I am wanting to get everything updated to Lion as a new MacPro has just landed with Lion on it!  We do not use a server of any kind, and all the files are therefore stored locally on each Mac.

What is my best solution to allow me to carry on in a similar fashion, as Silverkeeper does not work with Lion.  I don't want to use online storage at this stage, just want something I can take off-site every night.  I think my simplest (and cheapest!) solution is to use something like Carbon Copy Cloner and carry on with the external drive.  Or there's always Time Machine I suppose!  I don't need to clone each Mac, it's just that day's data that I need to make a copy of really.

Any suggestions/links to easy-to-use and reliable software/hardware solutions would be really useful.  It doesn't seem long since we only had 2 Macs and backing up to an external hard drive was the right way to do it!  Might now be time to step up to something more 'industrial'!

Thanks again - I wait for the advice to come flooding in... 

Paul.

[edd666999]

I'd be looking at a nas drive that does incremental backups of all the macs, then that nas backs upto an external drive which you can take off site.


Or drop box.

[andrewparker]

We have a machine running OS X Server, on which all working files are stored. This has two hard drives which mirror each other, plus a 4TB MyBook Studio drive which is set as a Time Machine back up. You really can't beat incremental back ups. They've saved a few people's lives here!

Everyone has their own personal USB Time Machine back up drive which is plugged into their own Mac.

[RedRobin]

.
Whichever hardware external drive systems you use, I think that TimeMachine is the most reliable and integrated into the Mac OS.

[Ifti]

You could do with a NAS to be honest.
Synology systems also support Time Machine etc.

As stated, you could use Time Machine for backups if you wanted and everything is compatible with Macs as well as Windows.

When it comes to a removeable backup to take away with you, simply use an external HDD with the NAS to backup all the data and take it away...

For an on-site backup you could use a DX510 expansion unit. Ive just received mine and have created a video on the setup etc, which I will upload later today.....

[andrewparker]

You can also use a Time Capsule to back up multiple Macs.

If you go for a NAS drive choose carefully. Not all of them work well with Macs.

[driver rider]

I personally would keep to the time machine.  Its the most reliable imo.  Time capsule I heard had a few teething problems perhaps they've been ironed out but I'd tread carefully.  Time machine would be my personal choice.

[PND]

Many thanks to you all for your replies so far.  Now I need to go away and start reading up..

If I get stuck, I'll be back for more info!

Thanks again. 

[Ifti]

The problem you will have with Time Capsule is that it is not an off site backup. If you leave the laptops at work also, then everything is in the same place. Ideally you want something like time machine, but then an additional backup of all files that you can store offsite, or take home with you etc. Hence the reason why I suggested a NAS that would be compatible with Time Machine, as well as giving you the option for an additional backup to take away with you.

As someone above said, not all NAS units are MAC compatible, but since I have a Synology, and use only Macs with it, I can confirm that the Synology NAS units are MAC friendly!

[andrewparker]

There's nothing to say a Time Capsule couldn't be unplugged and taken home every night....

[Ifti]

There's nothing to say a Time Capsule couldn't be unplugged and taken home every night....

True, but not the most convenient of things... Lol

[andrewparker]

There's nothing to say a Time Capsule couldn't be unplugged and taken home every night....

True, but not the most convenient of things... Lol

Neither is the 4TB MyBook Studio that I lug around. Damn thing weighs a tonne!

[Deako]

At work our setup is: On site LTO Tape library, off site copy of on site tape library (6 day 3 week tape rotation), offsite double take replication to our DR recovery platform. Paranoid? Nope. Nothing is truly backed up until you have 3 copies of the data. But then, I do work for a bank so......Most our servers are raid1 system drive, raid5/6 data as well as a massive fibre channel SAN. All our critical SQL boxes, file servers etc are also clustered. Some have DFS replication as well.

As for the solution in your small business environment. An onsite NAS solution compatible with time machine, a 2nd offsite remote backup that can be uploaded overnight (loads of web based solutions out there for cheap, with huge capacities) and also an export backup to a 2nd NAS/drive of the time capsule that can be taken offsite nightly (of previous nights backup).

[PND]

Really useful stuff guys.. thanks again. 

[RedRobin]

^^^^
Oh good - Can we go off-topic now? 

Just joking! It has to be said that this forum community has an awesome wealth of helpful information across a wide range of subjects