System backup / disaster recovery for Small Business

feenster99

feenster99

feenster99

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Hi all,
I've been looking at setting up a backup / disaster recovery system for a small network. The equipment is this:
- Windows SBS 2003
- Veritas Backup Exec 10
- LTO-2 tape drive (200/400GB)

With the above, is it possible to setup a backup routine that would allow a bare metal restore onto different hardware if the worst were to happen? I know my way around the basics of Veritas, and know SBS 2003 fairly well, but have never really looked into this aspect of it.

Any help/tutorials/links you could provide would be greatly appreciated,
Matt
 
i can imagine restoring a backup of windows from one hardware platform to another being a nightmare - what with the registry, hal, drivers etc.

some questions:

what hardware are you currently using?
what version of sbs are you using? (i.e. standard, or premium)
how many users do you currently have on your sbs network?
whats the projected growth rate of users over the next 12 months?
what's the average and largest size of exchange mailbox?
if you are using the premium edition, are you using sql for a line-of-business application?
are you using sharepoint?
how much user data is there stored on the server, in terms of gigs?

this info would help balance whether it is worth trying to automate a backup routine that would work over to new hardware, or whether it is worth just backing up critical data to enable you to do a fresh install in minimal time.
 
Hi,
Thanks for the reply. Answers to your questions as follows:

what hardware are you currently using?
I don't know precisely off the top of my head, but it's likely to be a Supermicro motherboard, Xeon Dual Core, 2GB RAM, Adaptec 2810SA RAID card with system and applications on 2 x 160GB RAID-1, and Exchange/Data on 3 x 160GB RAID-5

what version of sbs are you using? (i.e. standard, or premium)
Standard, R2

how many users do you currently have on your sbs network?
Around 30, but there are 30 others setup as Contacts in Active Directory to forward email to another site

whats the projected growth rate of users over the next 12 months?
Not much more than 2/3 users per year maximum

what's the average and largest size of exchange mailbox?
Average is around 300MB, largest around 2GB

if you are using the premium edition, are you using sql for a line-of-business application?
There is another application installed that uses SQL Server 2005 Express

are you using sharepoint?
No, thankfully ;-)

how much user data is there stored on the server, in terms of gigs?
Around 100GB of data, and about 15GB Exchange max.



I'd toyed with just making sure that Veritas was backing up the data, and use Exmerge to spit out the mailboxes to PST files every night, which could then be backed up on tape and copied onto a NAS drive on the network. This would leave out any custom group policies, user account settings etc etc which would be handy to preserve.

Does that help at all?

Matt
 
considering it sounds like you are using a white-box server, it might be an idea to try and pick up another cpu, motherboard and raid controller that are identical to the ones you already have... keep them somewhere safe... at least then you could re-build something that used the same hardware if the worst were to happen only leaving you to source disks. plus you then at least have identical spares should something fail outside of a proper disaster recovery scenario such as a fire or flood.

for business applications i always insist on proper server hardware from a reputable vendor, with 3 years proper 4hr on-site support... i know this doesn't help you if the building burns down, but it's far more likely that your going to be able to pick up identical hardware if your using an 'industry-standard' platform, even if it is second hand. let's face it - even some auction sites out there are brimming with 'typical' servers for a few hundred quid!

is the 100gb of data all 'current'...? it might be an idea to try and rationalise this down and archive where possible as a) it will reduce backup window, and b) if you do ever need to restore then it's not going to take as long... plus it encourages people to be tidy too! also, is *everything* stored on the server? or do people have stuff strewn all over their workstations too? are you using my documents redirection?

what are you doing in terms of backing up sql express? does your veritas backup have a plugin, or are you using some form of maintenance plan that is then incorporating the resultant files into the main backup? what rotation plan are you using for your tapes? do you always have a backup properly off-site? something else to consider could be, and this only for absolute mission critical data, dependant upon your internet connectivity - online storage...

hope this gives you a few things to think about, whilst also encouraging further discussion.
 
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Never had much success with Backup exec's IDR in the past, never seems to work properly for bare metal restores.

Backup exec purely for data capture/archival is fine, but personally i'd look at something else to complement it, to take care of the bare metal restores though, something along the lines of Acronis TI/Universal Restore or Symantec LSR (snapshots taken daily). Which have worked well for us in the past.

System/State Recovery = TI or LSR,
Business Data/Exchange/Sharepoint Recovery = Backup exec, and its assorted agents.

That's what i'd go with.
 
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Hi,
Thanks for the replies. I think i'm going to go down the VM route - convert the physical to virtual and make sure it is regularly updated.

What conversion softwares are there? I know of VMWare Converter - the vConverter looks interesting, but the website is apauling. Do any of the convertors allow the conversion of a physical Linux Server?

Matt
 
You can buy a perpetual license for vConverter and schedule replication, i.e. every night if required.

Best to download a trial and see if it fits your needs (and to test it).
 
feenster99 said:
Hi all,
I've been looking at setting up a backup / disaster recovery system for a small network. The equipment is this:
- Windows SBS 2003
- Veritas Backup Exec 10
- LTO-2 tape drive (200/400GB)

With the above, is it possible to setup a backup routine that would allow a bare metal restore onto different hardware if the worst were to happen? I know my way around the basics of Veritas, and know SBS 2003 fairly well, but have never really looked into this aspect of it.

Any help/tutorials/links you could provide would be greatly appreciated,
Matt
Click to expand...

This software allows full back up to remote locations and allows you to restore to different hardware. Iv tried and tested it my self and it works well.

http://www.acronis.com/smb/products/ATISBS/

Just make sure you install the universal restore add on (its free with the actual software) as this allows the resotre to any hardware all you do is feed it the drivers for the new hardware and it does the rest

Only the other day did i restore a HP Server to a Dell workstation to proove it could be done

Phil
 
As pjansell and Phil said, save yourself the hassle and just buy Acronis with universal restore. It works in 99% of all cases and any instance where it doesn't, Acronis are pretty quick to whip you up a special disc.
 
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