Jim Lawrence
accessd at shaw.ca
Wed Jan 13 17:35:48 CST 2010
A couple of years ago I installed a version of Windows Onecare on one station. It worked very well so I paid the $49.00 for a site licence and now backup all my stations to the servers. When the backup process first runs it builds a complete copy of your computer, on the backup computer and after that just does an incremental backup. It also handles the virus and firewall protection and does regular updates of itself. I have heard nothing good or bad about the Onecare product as it seems to float below the radar but it is just fine for me. On the other hand the DeltaCopy product seems like an excellent network/internet product/solution worthy of further investigation. Jim -----Original Message----- From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Mark Breen Sent: Wednesday, January 13, 2010 1:24 AM To: Discussion of Hardware and Software issues Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] Once and for all time: server backups 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 > _______________________________________________ > dba-Tech mailing list > dba-Tech at databaseadvisors.com > http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-tech > Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com > _______________________________________________ dba-Tech mailing list dba-Tech at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-tech Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com