I have a question in terms of backup recommendations. I would like to know what others thoughts are on doing backups via the Dump command straight to a tape drive versus using NDMP to a third party software for the backups. I currently and always have done the NDMP route but as we grow and add more data my backups on occasion aren't completing with the backup schedule which is 7pm - 7am. Depending on the amount of data change rate it just doesn't happen sometimes. So that leads to my question, I know with the third party software I am able to do restores of individual files, vmdk's, etc.... and I believe with the Dump that isn't true but I'm not sure, which route am I better to go with. I have a second SAN which I snapmirror too offsite. I also do VSC backups of all the virtual servers and have snapshots of my cifs. So what opinions is anyone able to offer in terms of using the Dump command or NDMP to third party software. I know NDMP is much nicer in terms of restores and having a gui interface but if the backups aren't finishing on time sometimes, I don't care about that. Can someone confirm whether I am able to restore individual vmdk's or not from the dump backups? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I currently have a FAS2020 with version 7.3.6 with a single controller. I will be moving to a FAS 2240-2 shortly with version 8.1.1.
Thanks in advance.
