Building an offsite BDR appliance

[jzukerman]

I have a client with an SBS2011 Stnd server that currently am using Idera CDP backup software to transfer the incremental backup image to an offsite linux box at the client's second office on the other side of town. I'd like to replace that solution with Storagecraft Shadowprotect, either as the full licensed software or the MSP model. I want to replace the existing offsite box as it is 5+yrs old with failing harddrives.

I understand that I'll need Shadowprotect SBS to install on the local server and store local backups to the USB external harddrives connected to the server. What I'm having trouble figuring out what hardware/OS I need for the offsite BDR appliance.

Do I build out a new server with redundant harddrives in some RAID fashion, then can I install Windows 7 or Windows 8 and install Storagecraft Shadowstream on it to store the offsite backup images? Would that be sufficent to allow me to pick up the offsite server in case of disaster, take to the main office, connect to the network, and restore to the old server?

Or better yet virtualize the backup image in case of hardware failure?

I realize this is everything Datto does, but I've read a lot of negative reviews from other IT consultants that had issues with Datto support and hardware failures. That concerns me whether I'd be partnered with the right company.

I figure I can build my own BDR appliance, like a Dell server which has higher quality parts, for less price than I can get a Datto box. Dell to support the hardware, OS is easy to support, and Storagecraft to support their own software when I need it.

I did a search and came up with vague information. I need the details.

 

[bigdessert]

I build my own BDR solutions using storage craft and server hardware only. I figure go right to the top when there is a software issue.

 

[jzukerman]

I build my own BDR solutions using storage craft and server hardware only. I figure go right to the top when there is a software issue.

What OS do you put on your BDR appliance?

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

... Datto ... but I've read a lot of negative reviews from other IT consultants that had issues with Datto support and hardware failures. That concerns me whether I'd be partnered with the right company.
I did a search and came up with vague information. I need the details.

I've been with Datto since the early days, we have near 30 clients on them...love their support. Only hardware issue we've seen was an early version of Altos which was only for a brief period of time and addressed.

And think about all the other stuff you don't get...when you build your own. How about the bootup screen shots getting e-mailed to you and your clients? Or redundant offsite data on east and west cost secured data centers? And local bootup/virtualization? Local 30x day full storage?

Anyways...for your question...you're on the path, Storage Craft has products in place to allow what you want to do and provide a little bit of what datto does, but I'd consider the host OS a bit more. If you're doing this for just 1x client...a desktop OS like Win7 will suffice. But if you want to do this for many clients...I'd look towards a more stable platform that handles many concurrent connections better. Being exposed to the internet also...you have security of the host OS to consider.

 

[jzukerman]

And think about all the other stuff you don't get...when you build your own. How about the bootup screen shots getting e-mailed to you and your clients? Or redundant offsite data on east and west cost secured data centers? And local bootup/virtualization? Local 30x day full storage?

Anyways...for your question...you're on the path, Storage Craft has products in place to allow what you want to do and provide a little bit of what datto does, but I'd consider the host OS a bit more. If you're doing this for just 1x client...a desktop OS like Win7 will suffice. But if you want to do this for many clients...I'd look towards a more stable platform that handles many concurrent connections better. Being exposed to the internet also...you have security of the host OS to consider.

Well this particular client is only interested in having the BDR hosted by him (at his 2nd office on the other side of town). I can understand that. It would make for quick retrieval of the box and data backups should the server at the main office go down.

As for the OS, Server 2012 Foundations and Essentials don't support Hyper-V, so that'd mean I'd have to get Server 2012 Stnd at $600-800 + cost of the hardware. Not sure the client would go for that. Is Server 2012 Stnd my only option to eliminate the concurrency limit? I think I read that Storagecraft Shadowstream won't install on Hyper-V Core 2012, has to be the full desktop GUI versions of Server 2012.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Maybe look into that Intelligent FTP option they have....that way you could build a *nix FTP host server (and of course since FTP is quite old and insecure...you'd want to put ACLs on the edge device in front of the FTP server to lock down what IPs can access it)

 

[bigdessert]

Well this particular client is only interested in having the BDR hosted by him (at his 2nd office on the other side of town). I can understand that. It would make for quick retrieval of the box and data backups should the server at the main office go down.

As for the OS, Server 2012 Foundations and Essentials don't support Hyper-V, so that'd mean I'd have to get Server 2012 Stnd at $600-800 + cost of the hardware. Not sure the client would go for that. Is Server 2012 Stnd my only option to eliminate the concurrency limit? I think I read that Storagecraft Shadowstream won't install on Hyper-V Core 2012, has to be the full desktop GUI versions of Server 2012.

We use 2012 foundation. Storage craft does virtual boot using virtualbox so os doesn't matter as long as it's windows. We use intelligent ftp to replicate to a mirror device at another location. If doing it over the Internet and bandwidth is an issue use the shadow stream as it is far more efficient than ftp.

 

[3ft]

I realize this is everything Datto does, but I've read a lot of negative reviews from other IT consultants that had issues with Datto support and hardware failures. That concerns me whether I'd be partnered with the right company.

We are in a similar boat right now, looking for the best DR solution to rollout to our clients. We did a trial run with the Datto AltoXL box. The first box hard locked after 10 days, then, after a kernel upgrade, it locked up every 3 days. They sent a replacement, which was installed yesterday and hard locks after 10 minutes every time it is rebooted. Needless to say, we will not be providing Datto as a solution to our clients.

I am looking at various software solutions now, and we will probably end up using some sort of Synology box onsite at the clients and tie the cloud to our S3 account (or Glacier, for some of our clients with large amounts of archived data).

 

[jzukerman]

We use 2012 foundation. Storage craft does virtual boot using virtualbox so os doesn't matter as long as it's windows. We use intelligent ftp to replicate to a mirror device at another location. If doing it over the Internet and bandwidth is an issue use the shadow stream as it is far more efficient than ftp.

Thank you. That's the answer I'm looking for. I can get a Dell server or Lenovo server with a bunch of harddrives in RAID and WS2012 Foundations. Then install Storagecraft Shadowstream for a target location and be a nice little offsite bdr.

 

[Frick]

Another option is to partner with eFolder and resell their BDR boxes and service, which is designed for ShadowProtect. The price is about even when compared to doing it yourself, but you get a solid and mature service with top tier support.

 

[bigdessert]

Another option is to partner with eFolder and resell their BDR boxes and service, which is designed for ShadowProtect. The price is about even when compared to doing it yourself, but you get a solid and mature service with top tier support.

This is good, but all of my clients want high RTO so they want a second device ready to virtualize on site at the ready.

 

[Frick]

eFolder has a physical device for local backup and virtualizations, and replicate to their cloud for offsite security

 

[marley1]

Don't see why thou even need to deploy on server grade. Could probably do a optplex unit.

If I was doing this for clients I would look at leasing the equipment and charging monthly