Server Backup Question

[Cerberus LLC]

Greetings everybody. Can anybody point me toward an automatic backup solution for single server? A gentleman asked me today if I could come up with a solution that would make backing up their server much easier. I'm not sure what O.S. he's using or any particulars just yet. I do know he's using tape for his backups, which apparently he hates changing all of the time and some of his employees have forgot to change out in the past.

If you were me, what could you do to make this an easy and pain free job? New software?, new hardware for the backups? The guy has money to spend on this job. Just wanted to get a heads up from some other experienced members.

Thank you, you guys ROCK!

 

[angry_geek]

Acronis and rotating external hdd's.

 

[Compbck]

I agree with angry geek - I run a small domain-based office with Server 2003 plus exchange serving about 5 clients. I already use Acronis to create client images so customers can quickly restore their systems.

On my server I use Acronis both to create main recovery images, which means I can actually recover the whole server back to a working state in a very short space of time. I may have to do a bit of tweeking, but a least the bulk of the server is back up and working.

I also use it as a scheduled back-up tool backing up the most important data to external drives, which are now quite economical to purchase even for large storage versions.

Acronis backup software is tried and tested should do the job for you.

 

[Cerberus LLC]

Many Thanks

Thank you both. Do either of you have any dealings or have heard anything good/bad about Novasoft's Handy Backup? It's kinda pricey but is it better? I have to dig out my Acronis 2010 from the pile in the meanwhile lol.

 

[DarDar]

Is the changing of the tapes his main complaint? He might not like changing external hdds if that is the case.

If you have the capacity, offer him to remote backup to your server at the shop via secure ftp? Or resell him a remote package like carbonite for office or similar.

He can then keep his tapes in operation but change them once a month or even better - you offer to do the tape backup for him for a retainer?

 

[Cerberus LLC]

Thank you

Is the changing of the tapes his main complaint? He might not like changing external hdds if that is the case.

If you have the capacity, offer him to remote backup to your server at the shop via secure ftp? Or resell him a remote package like carbonite for office or similar.

He can then keep his tapes in operation but change them once a month or even better - you offer to do the tape backup for him for a retainer?

Good point. More to consider. My head is gonna bust lol

 

[coreyspeed]

i would also like to know of a solution to this kinda problem.

what i would like to do is offer remote backup service to my clients, via ftp but i need to know what software i can use to do this, something easy to use preferably. anybody got any ideas for this ?

 

[Majestic]

i would also like to know of a solution to this kinda problem.

what i would like to do is offer remote backup service to my clients, via ftp but i need to know what software i can use to do this, something easy to use preferably. anybody got any ideas for this ?

The biggest problem is that most companies don't have the bandwidth to handle online/remote backups. It would take forever if companies are adding many gigs everyday to the server and changing it constantly which is usually the case. I mean you CAN use services like Mozy Backup and Carbonite which does work well over time for a smaller amount of backup (let's say max 50 gigs) and data that does not change too much. When you have terabytes of information to backup the best solution is to have alternating daily backups and one of them everyday goes off site into a fire proof safe.

Personally, I use Fbackup to as a program for "local" backups to either NAS or external hard drives. For online I do use carbonite.

I'm not saying this is the only way and I'm certainly not -the- expert on this but this solution has worked for most of my clients.

Majestic

 

[Joines]

Acronis, Acronis, Acronis

We also use 5 rotating external 2 TB hard drives, and store them in a fireproof safe (and one is always kept off site)

We were plagued with Synmantec Backup Exec for a while before we realized it was time for a new solution. I mentioned it in another thread, but Backup Exec was taking around ~11 hours (and failing most of the time) to backup our data. Acronis does this in 1.5 hrs, and its not just backing up the data its creating an image of your 5 disk raid array. So if the server were ever to completely die, the active directory users/computers and other settings would be restored as well

 

[angry_geek]

i would also like to know of a solution to this kinda problem.

what i would like to do is offer remote backup service to my clients, via ftp but i need to know what software i can use to do this, something easy to use preferably. anybody got any ideas for this ?

Become a reseller for Mozy Pro. Great solution depending on the amount of data your customer has, and you make a nice monthly profit with enough customers.

 

[MrUnknown]

post reported, hes spamming it other forums also.
edit: spam post I am referring to has been deleted. Thanks mods.

 

[Cerberus LLC]

Confused lol

post reported, hes spamming it other forums also.
edit: spam post I am referring to has been deleted. Thanks mods.

What did I miss here? lol

If any of you had the opportunity to use any server operating system, which would it be? I ask this because depending on what he is using, I may replace it for something really user friendly and easy to manage locally or remotely. Ideas?

 

[ITMAN]

I use 80GB MOZY PRO on daily backups (exchange etc ) then monthly FULL server image to EXT HDD

 

[PcTek9]

server operating system. well. you sort of have to be like a ninja to use microsoft windows server. always fighting off the next new attack. at least with linux servers you can rest a lot longer in between battles. i've never seen a virus on the es900/es9000 enterprise data systems if they want to run zos. if they are running IBM i there are different options. but really u need to know what they are doing, where they are going.

some companies will be worth hundreds of millions and try to get you to bandaid everything together because they are so greedy they fuss about having to purchase anything. you just have to tell them like it is...