[dba-Tech] Once and for all time: server backups

Steve,

DOS XCopy32 will do it all - with switches for incremental backup.
You can  also schedule it from windows scheduler.

Max


-----Original Message-----
From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Steve Erbach
Sent: 12 January 2010 16:13
To: Discussion of Hardware and Software issues
Subject: [dba-Tech] Once and for all time: server backups

Dear Group,

My wife, Janet, wrote a while back asking for advice on server backups.
 She's the *de facto* system administrator where she works, a retail
high-end natural food supplement store with a large Internet presence [
www.naturalhealthyconcepts.com].  I said "de facto" because she really has
no experience with hardware or networking.  Databases, queries, a little web
design, sure.  Trouble-shooting network and backup issues?  Yuck!

Anyway, I've been, of course, privy to her continued struggles with the
backup issues she's been having.  This all started when Janet's boss had a
new server installed.  It's a Windows Small Business Server 2008 system.
 That's a hybrid of Windows Server 2008 and SQL Server 2005.

The company that installed the server had never installed Small Business
Server 2008 before...but the co-owner of the computer company is a roommate
of one of the boss's employees...so, lets give the kid a chance, eh?

Well, they haven't been much help.  Shortly after the server was installed,
I persuaded the network administrator of the place I had just been downsized
from to come in on a weekend and take a look at the server and speed it up
and offer suggestions.  He had recommended a backup system based on a
Thermaltake BlacX eSATA and USB docking station.  Janet's boss purchased a
couple 500 GB Seagate drives to cycle in the docking station.  For backup
software, the network admin recommended Casper.  He didn't specify which
edition of Casper to use...so Janet's boss authorized the purchase of the
personal edition since it was only $50.

Janet was able to get successful backups with Casper a few times...but she
was continually frustrated because NOTHING seemed to work with respect to
setting up a schedule for unattended backups.

Lately she became a beta tester for the Casper Tech Edition, normally about
$550.  As a "reward" for being a beta tester, her company got a free copy of
the new version.  This has also been a spotty performer.  Casper sometimes
took over 12 hours to make a complete backup.

She also tried Acronis Backup and Recovery 10 Server.  There was a 15-day
trial edition.  That installation exacerbated her problems.  Apparently,
Acronis replaces the Windows Volume Shadow Copy with its own version.  When
she went to un-install Acronis, the Volume Shadow Copy service was disabled
somehow and now Casper has even more problems since it relies on VSS.  She's
been trying to re-enable the Volume Shadow Copy service so that Casper Tech
Edition will work properly.

One more thing: the server has a 70 GB SAS RAID 5 array and a 500 GB data
drive.  Janet has attempted to backup both of these drives to one of the 500
TB drives in the docking station since ALL the space on those two production
drives isn't used up.  Acronis would often say that there wasn't enough room
on the backup drive and abort.  Another little "feature" of Acronis,
apparently, is that it makes a temporary image during backup and needs extra
drive space...at least that's my (limited) understanding.

Janet's boss has purchased a couple more 500 GB drives to use for backups
and Janet is juggling those as best she can with the limited knowledge she
has of the way these image backup programs work.

So, here are the questions:

   1. what do you think of using an external docking station to plug in
   backup drives?
   2. what do you think of the cloning-type backup solutions that are
   SUPPOSED to make bootable backups of a server?
   3. what do YOU use to backup your servers?
   4. what positive/negative experiences have you had with
   Acronis/Casper/Ghost/etc.?
   5. should Janet recommend buying 1 TB drives for backups instead of
   cramming two drives onto a 500 GB backup drive?


That'll do for now!  This has been 9 or 10 months of struggling and praying
that the hardware doesn't fail.

Regards,

Steve Erbach
Neenah, WI
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