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

Mark Breen marklbreen at gmail.com
Wed Jan 13 03:39:45 CST 2010


Hello Steve,

I should hare stressed one point here.

ServerA has mirrored disks, so if I loose a disk, I should not loose the
server.  (machine B is the same BTW).  But the big worry is always if
anything goes wrong with ServerA, motherboard, video card, raid controller
etc, I could loose the entire machine and it could takes days and days to
get back from a failed raid controller.

With machineB type configuration, I have a hot, ready to go, file sharing
machine, that would allow 90% of the company to be backup up and running in
minutes, and I could fix ServerA at my leisure.

Oh One other thing, first thing I did when I went on-site three years ago
was migrate the company off their old creaking Exchange Server and outlook,
and move everything to Google App for Domains, so I have zero worries about
backuping up or restoring their email systems.

This is DeltaCopy  http://www.aboutmyip.com/AboutMyXApp/DeltaCopy.jsp

and if you do not like that, have a look at SyncToy by MS
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=c26efa36-98e0-4ee9-a7c5-98d0592d8c52&displaylang=en


thanks

Mark



2010/1/13 Mark Breen <marklbreen at gmail.com>

> Hello Steve,
>
> I saw there are already a lot of responses to this thread, but I can tell
> you what I do with a few servers that I am responsible for.
>
> 1) I have a spare machine on the network, and I use DeltaCopy to mirror
> certain folders from Server A to machine B everynight.  This has worked well
> for three years now.
> This gives me hot backups, every 24 hours.  I could actually increase the
> frequency to every 12 hours if I wished.  Very little network traffic, as
> DeltaCopy only copies differences.
>
> 2) Using DeltaCopy again, I make a second sync of the files from Server A
> to a WebServer that happens to exist in a data centre off site.  For
> connectivity I use Hamachi.  You could offer the client this solution and
> even host the off-site machine at home, once Hamachi works at home you are
> ready to go.
>
> These two options give me hot 24 hours, on and off site backups, fully
> automated and cost almost zero.  If Server A went down, all data is stored
> on machine B, on site.  Sure I would have to map the printers again, and we
> might have no domain controller for few days, but once everyone has access
> to machine B, you are good to go.  And of the building burns, floods, or all
> equipment is stolen, you have 24 hours off site backups.
>
> 3) I periodically copy selected data onto CD / DVD / tape once a quarter as
> a point in time archive.
>
> Hope that helps somewhat,
>
> Mark
>
>
> 2010/1/12 Steve Erbach <erbachs at gmail.com>
>
> 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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>
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