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South Yorkshire gets backed up
In 2004 South Yorkshire trialled Yosemite software as a new back up solution for its large scale migration from NT servers to Microsoft 2000 and Microsoft 2003 servers. The organisation needed back up software that was compatible with the new MS SQL server infrastructure.
With IT integrator Softassure's assistance, South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service implemented Yosemite Tapeware version 7 as stage one of its project. It then followed it up a year later by installing the next version of the solution – Yosemite Backup 8.5. Yosemite now provides backup for all data at central headquarters in Sheffield supporting over 300 users.
The organisation implemented the solution with one master server so it could do the whole back-up from one server, with client licenses for each one of the servers being protected. All the jobs are created on one server and as a result different tapes in different zones from one single source can be backed up.
During implementation there were some major challenges – initially, it seemed that the Yosemite software couldn’t detect the Oracle databases, but this was resolved quickly by Yosemite’s technical consultants.
The new servers have enabled data to be restored and backed up more efficiently. Prior to moving to Yosemite, the fire service was using Windows backup software – it was slower and too basic for the requirements of backing up the Microsoft Exchange, SQL and Oracle servers.
The organisation deploys a three-week rotation for the backup of its data onto tapes. It backs up a total of 13 servers that serve the whole of South Yorkshire. Everything gets backed up at the same time. While it is the tape drives that back up the data more quickly, it is the Yosemite software that enables this speeded up service.
South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue has only had to restore one primary controller so far after a hardware fault caused it to go down. The data was restored onto a new server and it took the best part of a day to get the information back. Once restored the data from the tape had to be input, but without the back-up the information on the server would have been lost.
David Alton, ICT support technician at South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue, is delighted with the results that Softassure has achieved with the Yosemite solution. “It provides excellent back up for our new, faster updated IT environment. If our system goes down, we have the peace of mind knowing that Yosemite Backup works effectively to help us restore data in quickly. This reduces downtime and makes us more efficient.”
