Server Backup Options

[tim967]

Morning all,

Hopefully this is in the right section, if not please move to correct area.

We currently have a HP Microserver with a 300gb hard drive(will soon be another 1tb) and a 1tb hard drive with server 2008 datacenter edition installed which is currently being used for file sharing and for users to remote desktop into it to use programs such as sage accounts etc.

We are in the process of splitting the office into two offices and have purchased another microserver with 2 of 1tb hdd's for the second office(few miles down the road).

Each site will hold its own server, and its own files but we would like to implement some sort of backup solution so that at say 6pm when the offices are closed, the files in office 1 are backed up to the second hard drive in the second offices server, and also the files in the second offices server are backed up to the second hard drive in office 1's server.

This would hopefully enable us to have an offsite backup solution which we can fall back on in case of hard drive failure or an incident in the office such as a fire.

Obviously we would not want a full backup everytime as we don't have the greatest internet speeds here. So ideally it would just upload the changes files since the last backup.

Can anyone recommend any software that would enable us to do this?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Armageus]

How are the sites connected? If they aren't and each just have an internet connection, then what are the connection speeds?

Ideally you would set up a VPN, and then could use something as basic as Robocopy and Scheduled Tasks to copy between the servers

 

[tim967]

The sites arn't connected, just to the internet, both have around 15-18mb at the minute on a standard adsl line, one site is getting fibre soon though(subject to BT doing the job right).

I'll take a look at robocopy now thanks

 

[Armageus]

The sites arn't connected, just to the internet, both have around 15-18mb at the minute on a standard adsl line, one site is getting fibre soon though(subject to BT doing the job right).

Upload Speed will be the limiting factor with standard adsl/adsl2, as you will get a maximum of 1Mbps up.

I'll take a look at robocopy now thanks

You'll need a VPN set up first, as you need both machines to appear on the same network for this to work (although once you have a VPN set up, you can use any local backup software)

 

[bledd]

How big are the files?

Do you want a daily collection of files?

Ie, if someone says, "oh I need that file that I created on the 10th, I changed it on the 12th and today is the 15th"

Do the files compress well? -create a copy of the folder and run 7zip on it, in 7z Ultra mode, say how big the uncompressed folder is and the compressed folder.



There are many ways of doing this.

I assume you have around 1Mbit upload, which is somewhat limiting.

 

[tim967]

How big are the files?

Do you want a daily collection of files?

Ie, if someone says, "oh I need that file that I created on the 10th, I changed it on the 12th and today is the 15th"

Do the files compress well? -create a copy of the folder and run 7zip on it, in 7z Ultra mode, say how big the uncompressed folder is and the compressed folder.



There are many ways of doing this.

I assume you have around 1Mbit upload, which is somewhat limiting.

Probably will be around 100gb at each site, wouldnt need to get back to different versions of files. It's literally just if there is a fire or something and the server is damaged/destroyed. We can recover the files onto a new server or temporarily work from the other office if needed.

Going to have a play around with vpn's later today(not something i can say i've done before I don't think)