Backup Exec

MikeHiow · 31 Oct 2011 at 19:34

I'm currently looking at backup solutions and currently favouring BackupExec. I'm pretty much set to go ahead with the BackupExec option, but I figure it cannot hurt to get some other options on the table.

To give you an idea of the requirements, I'm planning on backing up the following to an LTO-5 Ultrium drive (3TB compressed @ 1TB/hr apparently) connected to a dedicated backup server;
Each list item represents one server

Domain and File shares
Exchange
File server
MsSQL server (including some file backups)

All of the above would include what BackupExec calls "bare-metal restore".

I've had a quote for the above at a little over £3k +vat.

Are there any other solutions that I should be considering? Cost isn't too much of an issue, but I certainly wouldn't mind something cheaper.

PR. · 31 Oct 2011 at 22:15

If it's all MS stuff what about MS Data Protection Manager?

We went from BackupExec to DPM as it was a lot cheaper and allowed us to centralise our backups. It does bare-metal restores though I've not tried them.

Only problems I've had with it are it's weak tape management and it struggles on our narrow broadband connections (was promised major upgrades over a year ago! :/)

I think there is a trial if you wanted to test it. - http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/system-center/data-protection-manager.aspx

walnuts · 1 Nov 2011 at 07:57

If your getting bare-metal restore then you must be getting copy of System Recovery for each server. System Recovery is like Acronis and as far I know can't natively backup to tape. You need to make sure you have some free space for it on one current servers.

MikeHiow · 1 Nov 2011 at 08:56

I was planning on doing system images to an "off site" data store (we have a 100mbit wifi link to our other site), with the specific backups being on tape.

walnuts · 1 Nov 2011 at 09:29

System Recovery is quite good. Management console is free and so is granular recovery. You can restore emails from system images of your Exchange Server. It also has off-site copy feature where you can send backups to 2 different data stores for single job. So you'll have plenty of options.

Next version of Backup Exec is getting cut down version of System Recovery integrated into it. It's being called Simple Disaster Recovery and it will replace current feature called Intelligent Disaster Recovery. I'm not sure I will continue using System Recovery once new version Backup Exec is released. Just something to consider.