Server Imaging?

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Psyotik

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We have a lot of clients that are running single server setups. And due to the tough economy are not wanting to upgrade. We have backups of their data but if the system fails or the OS corrupts on these servers we would have to perform a rebuild of the entire system configuration.

What do yall recommend to Image these servers as they stand now in good working condition? The purpose would be to just restore the OS and all of the settings and then restore the data from the local/ remote daily backups after the image has been restored to the hardware.

I am looking for a low cost/ free software that can perform a 1 time Image of each server that I can store in case of a system down emergency. And would need to be able to be restored on bare bones hardware.
 
Psyotik said:
We have a lot of clients that are running single server setups. And due to the tough economy are not wanting to upgrade. We have backups of their data but if the system fails or the OS corrupts on these servers we would have to perform a rebuild of the entire system configuration.

What do yall recommend to Image these servers as they stand now in good working condition? The purpose would be to just restore the OS and all of the settings and then restore the data from the local/ remote daily backups after the image has been restored to the hardware.

I am looking for a low cost/ free software that can perform a 1 time Image of each server that I can store in case of a system down emergency. And would need to be able to be restored on bare bones hardware.
Click to expand...

I've used Norton Ghost ($) and Clonezilla (free). Not sure about Ghost on RAID arrays though. Clonezilla I can say works for RAID 1 backup/restore but you have to pull the secondary drive for backup, and when restoring disable RAID then enable once the primary drive is restored.

I've been wanting to test out DriveImage XML but no time.
 
I have used Acronis to make an image from an older SCSI controller in RAID 1 and restored it to a new SATA controller in RAID 1, just had to use universal restore to load the correct raid drivers
 
I've got a few "high availability" clients, such as SMB license servers and whatnot that can't ever be offline. My method for handling those is:

2 concurrently running, identical OS's. Which I've virtualized, and those VM's are running on separate hardware/switches (behind a dual wan loadbalancer w/ failover).

In order to keep the VM's identical, I an intermediary "backup controller" that does SQL dumps (if it's locally hosted sql) , copies and drops the table and imports the fresh one. Run Rsync over the entire VM. Should 1 VM go down, or someone deletes the existance of VM1, VM2 failover kicks and and you might lose a couple packets, but that's it.

I've broken the backup down into 3 stages, immediate, secondary and deep storage. The backup schedule for each, relatively, is <=1week, 1week<<=4week, and >=month

Immediate storage houses a brand new snapshot of the machine taken once a week, and any daily incrementals's since then ie: 1 os archive + any number of sql dumps, and new file uploads, etc.

Should a server fail, and need to be rebuilt. The clone will be the 'new main' server and will be in production, you can't mess with it. We rebuild the server off the fresh snapshot and import the dumps, and merge the incrementals.

Secondary backup is the 4 weeks of fresh snapshots+diffs (keep the oldest OS snapshot, drop the others), and merge all the incrementals. This should let you rever the OS to any day in the last 30 perfectly.

Deep storage is the merge of all diffs + snapshot for secondary, compressed

The actual backup looks like this on a windows server:
Cobian Backup for incrementals, Snapshots for base-OS. My servers don't have optics, so I wouldn't use ISO's even if I could. Thinking about moving Cobian to GoodSync though. It's basically block level rsync for windows.

Linux machines are strictly rsync with various scripts, and snapshots.

Subtract a step or two from what I'm doing and you can do this with 1 machine running VM's and get a NAS and be fine.
 
Paragon makes a great product

At the Hospice I support, we use Paragon server backup software. Interface is a bit clunky and the process has a bit of a learning curve, but once set up, it works great. It's saved my bacon a couple of times. Restoring a Citrix server in 15 minutes vs. rebuilding it made me a convert!
 
HankArnold said:
At the Hospice I support, we use Paragon server backup software. Interface is a bit clunky and the process has a bit of a learning curve, but once set up, it works great. It's saved my bacon a couple of times. Restoring a Citrix server in 15 minutes vs. rebuilding it made me a convert!
Click to expand...

I've used Paragon at my Hospice client also...have 6 servers there.
However have since upgraded them to DattoBackup...so if a server has a physical failure....I can spin up the backup image on the local appliance...or up in the cloud..and have it avail for them.

However, following the OPs request for cheaper and just for existing single server setups....I'd recommend using something like StorageCraft and an external USB drive.

OP...I see you mentioned you wanted to make a one time image....however, if you're talking servers....real servers...setup properly...we're talking about Active Directory here. You can't just restore the OS and then catch up by restoring pure data. You have the metadata inside of active directory..it will be "stale"..and basically you'll find the user accounts and computer accounts for the rest of the network will be broken. Workstations will not be able to log in...you'll get some funky messages. Need to keep backups of AD up to date.
 
Almost all of these software packages will NOT work on a Windows server. You have to buy the server versions to work correctly. StorageCraft for servers is almost $900.
 
The clients are a mix of Server 03, 08, and SBS 03 all setup with Raid 5's. I have looked into storagecraft but the clients would never go for a $1000 software. This is just something I would like to find a way to make a single image. I do not need it for continuous imaging.

These clients, typically never add anything new to their servers, only the occasional new user, updates, file storage, and software databases. This data is backed up seperately and I can restore it manually.

What I am wanting the image to do is be a fail safe to return me to a point where their exchange and software is already installed and configured. And only needs to have its current data restored. Its not so much time sensitive that the servers stay running all the time. Its more so the clients just cant afford to pay to have us rebuild their servers, or replace them. When It certainly would be more cost effective to replace these 3-6 year old servers when they fail than rebuild them.

Is there really not a cheap(ie. >$100) imaging software out there that can do this?
Unless there is a software we can purchase for $1000 that we can install and run an image of each of the servers and uninstall?
 
Well don't forget...for SBS...the SBS version of StorageCraft is NOT 1000 bucks...it's 450 or 490 or something.

Next...don't forget...it doesn't matter if you haven't added users, or haven't added computers. The lifetime of the SIDs...the user accounts, and the computer accounts...between the server, and the workstations...well, I guess you'll just have to see this in person to see what I mean. But to sum it up...you cannot image a server...and then have it and users and workstations continue to boot up each day for the next 9 months, and then wipe and restore that 9 month old image of the server..and expect things to work soon as it boots up. The users workstations will not log in..those SID tokens are now way out of whack. And restoring the infostore...heh... ;) There is a thing called "tombstone".

There isn't much that is "cheap" for servers. However....for me, for a clients backup product...I would want a product with "support" behind it. Any clients of mine...their accounts with any backup software they have, must be kept up to date each year. If the sh|t hits the fan and I'm under the gun to restore their server and I'm having problems, I insist of having the support for that backup software vendor on call.
 
Can you tell me more about how storageCraft solve the riddles above? Does it work just because just because the image is fresher? For example last night? or does it do more to solve these problems?
 
Ten Yard Fight said:
Can you tell me more about how storageCraft solve the riddles above? Does it work just because just because the image is fresher? For example last night? or does it do more to solve these problems?
Click to expand...

The idea is frequent scheduled images....regardless of what product you use.

The concept of imaging a server once...and then thinking that 1 or 2 years later you can simply restore that (in case of data)..and then quickly restore the data folders, and perhaps restore/mount the infostore from a recent backup.....is not a concept that would work. You'll have workstation errors trying to log in, and Exchange will balk at trying to get an infostore with a far time stamp shoved down its throat.
 
Just about to put Macrium Reflect Server on an old Server 2003 box.
It seems to be the most reasonably priced scheduled imaging program I could find.
I already use the Macrium Reflect Pro version on several workstations with good results.
It will manage backup space and email me if the backup fails.
 
My company is a StorageCraft MSP. If you are willing to do the work, then I can give a monthly no obligation license to ShadowProtect through my MSP agreement. Pay for one month then cancel. That would be a fraction of the cost of purchasing the software outright.

Send me a PM if you are interested.
 
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