Small business looking for backup solution

RangeR

Hi guys,

We are a small business [7 users] with 2 or 3 servers. Server types include the usual, PDC, Exchange, SQL Server...

I'm trying to find a backup solution without costing a bomb. I know you can't put a price on your business in the case of DR we certainly can't afford thousands to implement a backup solution.

I also love Open Source software and would like to give it a try but can't find anything to suit what we want.

Critical Requirements:

• Backup to allow bare metal restore [or as close as possible]
• Backup open files
• Backup Exchange, SQL Server, etc
• Backup complete systems including permissions, registry etc
• Backup of VMWare images

Secondary requirements

• As above but for desktop machines
• Would prefer not to use tape but HDD for short term backup and optical for long term.

A cross between BackupPC and Amanda would be ideal but would look for any other recommendations.

gafarrell

Would you not go for an on-line solution like www.idrive.com. You can get 2GB free and a 50GB package wouldnt cost all that much. I have used it and i find it to be alright.

RangeR

gafarrell wrote: »

Would you not go for an on-line solution like www.idrive.com. You can get 2GB free and a 50GB package wouldnt cost all that much. I have used it and i find it to be alright.

Our internet connection is only 300Kb upload.

Also, iDrive is not bare metal backup so useless to us.

Also, I generally NEVER use any product or service that starts with a lower case i. It just SCREAMS ... "I'm sexy like the iPod, use me too" ... "gimmick"

Tomtata

On one server (The most powerful) install Citrix XenServer - Install Windows SBS 2008 - Migrate SQL / Exchange / AD services etc... on to the New SBS VM

Setup another server with Linux (Debian, Centos, etc...) and setup NFS.

Script a simple nightly image backup to your NFS server.

This would give you all the benefits of Virtualisation and an Easy backup, restore and DR solution.

Setup the last server with XenServer and leave it until you need to do DR.

The cost - 1x SBS license (Wonder why you didn’t go with SBS in the beginning?)

It’s a nice solution and DR restore would be very quick. If you dont want to go with SBS then you may need to purchase new licenses for each VM. I suspect your lics are OEM.

Drop me a PM if you need any specfic info.

Standard Toaster

http://www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm

Should do everything you need

RangeR

Tomtata wrote: »

On one server (The most powerful) install Citrix XenServer - Install Windows SBS 2008 - Migrate SQL / Exchange / AD services etc... on to the New SBS VM

Setup another server with Linux (Debian, Centos, etc...) and setup NFS.

Script a simple nightly image backup to your NFS server.

This would give you all the benefits of Virtualisation and an Easy backup, restore and DR solution.

Setup the last server with XenServer and leave it until you need to do DR.

The cost - 1x SBS license (Wonder why you didn’t go with SBS in the beginning?)

It’s a nice solution and DR restore would be very quick. If you dont want to go with SBS then you may need to purchase new licenses for each VM. I suspect your lics are OEM.

Drop me a PM if you need any specfic info.

Yeah, by Thursday, I was almost set on doing dual vm hosts. We run sbs on our PDC. It's action pack. I'm currently testing some p2v at the moment which should ease migration.

We MIGHT have a winner. However, I don't see ow simple scripting backup can easily backup AD, users, permissions etc. Actually scrub that. Nightly backup of all VM's would do that

RangeR

Standard Toaster wrote: »

http://www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm

Should do everything you need

Very interesting link. I'll look into that a bit more.

Faolchu

there's a company out there called Keet It Safe. I've looked at them for online backups recently. price PA is aroung 2000 for 60GB of data which includes an exchange serve (7 users) and system states of windows servers. might be worth a look

RangeR

Faolchu wrote: »

there's a company out there called Keet It Safe. I've looked at them for online backups recently. price PA is aroung 2000 for 60GB of data which includes an exchange serve (7 users) and system states of windows servers. might be worth a look

Looks good but online backup isn't an option for us. We have next to no upload speed.

Faolchu

RangeR wrote: »

Looks good but online backup isn't an option for us. We have next to no upload speed.

even if it's kicked off at midnight when your bandwidth isn't being used?

RangeR

Faolchu wrote: »

even if it's kicked off at midnight when your bandwidth isn't being used?

I'm not looking to backup just data [documents / spreadsheets etc]. I'm looking to backup the entire disk, windows server, exchange, sql server and all. Hopefully incrementally and allow bare metal restore. Our initial backup will be in the region of 500GB with incremental backups taking approx 1GB to 10GB nightly. That is NOT going to happen with a 300Kbps upload connection. So no. Not even at night.

Online backup is not going to happen but I appriciate your link.

Faolchu

with that amount of data i'd agree that it may not be possible. sorry i couldn't be of more help

swampgas

RangeR wrote: »

Yeah, by Thursday, I was almost set on doing dual vm hosts. We run sbs on our PDC. It's action pack. I'm currently testing some p2v at the moment which should ease migration.

We MIGHT have a winner. However, I don't see ow simple scripting backup can easily backup AD, users, permissions etc. Actually scrub that. Nightly backup of all VM's would do that

Another nice feature of virtualising your servers is you can *really* test your backups - copy your production VM to a backup/DR server, and start it up.
(Obviously you need to make sure the VM network is not connected.)

Boskonay

I'd second the VM option - gives you so many more options and much more control - you can also opt to shift the vm's offsite for backup/DR at any point with minimal interruption to services

RangeR

Yup, VM option seems the best and what I'm aiming for. Well, two powerful VM hosts high at least high availability.

However, at the moment, as with all things, I have to settle with BackupPC and a 2 TB NAS in the short term. Still fighting for a prober solution.

Gillie

RangeR wrote: »

Critical Requirements:

• Backup to allow bare metal restore [or as close as possible]
• Backup open files
• Backup Exchange, SQL Server, etc
• Backup complete systems including permissions, registry etc
• Backup of VMWare images

Backup Exec would handle all of these requirements.
You would need the System Recovery Product for the BMR element though.
Would you need to be able to restore individual Mailbox items or just the info store??

The latest version of BESR (Backup Exec System Recovery) has Granular restore tech built into it so you can perform restores of your Exchange Items from within the image taken.

RangeR

Cheers, I doubt I'll get the go ahead for the expense of a proper backup solution. However, I was at Epicenter 2010 the other day. The cInfinity online backup solution looks VERY promising. For those of us who have very limited upload, they provide onsite hardware to perform the first full site wide backup. that machine is then transferred to the data center and transferred as our first backup. Their software then does delta backups every 15 minutes. VERY nice.
Those 15 minute intervals are kept short term, the longer the term the wider the interval.

Have to say, for online solution, it's very nice. Especially for low bandwidth users.

I just hop the boss springs for it. Currently we are running BackupPC to a local 2TB Buffalo NAS box. It's just not good bar very simple restores etc but better than nothing.

rolion

I'll go full steam ahead with the product range from Symantec. That covers all your requirements and no matter the price,is your business/data at stake.Also,is a serious company that has a valid website AND will be in business tomorrow,if i'll need support or upgrades ! !


cInfinity web site ... down ! ? ? WTF ?

Warning: Unknown: failed to open stream: Permission denied in Unknown on line 0

Fatal error: Unknown: Failed opening required '/home/clynch12/domains/cinfinity.ie/public_html/index.php' (include_path='.:/usr/local/lib/php') in Unknown on line 0

RangeR wrote: »

Cheers, I doubt I'll get the go ahead for the expense of a proper backup solution. However, I was at Epicenter 2010 the other day. The cInfinity online backup solution looks VERY promising. For those of us who have very limited upload, they provide onsite hardware to perform the first full site wide backup. that machine is then transferred to the data center and transferred as our first backup. Their software then does delta backups every 15 minutes. VERY nice.
Those 15 minute intervals are kept short term, the longer the term the wider the interval.

Have to say, for online solution, it's very nice. Especially for low bandwidth users.

I just hop the boss springs for it. Currently we are running BackupPC to a local 2TB Buffalo NAS box. It's just not good bar very simple restores etc but better than nothing.

brianoconnell

For free VMware ESX backup/restores check out GhettoVCBg2

http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-9843

kmick

RangeR wrote: »

Cheers, I doubt I'll get the go ahead for the expense of a proper backup solution. However, I was at Epicenter 2010 the other day. The cInfinity online backup solution looks VERY promising. For those of us who have very limited upload, they provide onsite hardware to perform the first full site wide backup. that machine is then transferred to the data center and transferred as our first backup. Their software then does delta backups every 15 minutes. VERY nice.
Those 15 minute intervals are kept short term, the longer the term the wider the interval.

Have to say, for online solution, it's very nice. Especially for low bandwidth users.

I just hop the boss springs for it. Currently we are running BackupPC to a local 2TB Buffalo NAS box. It's just not good bar very simple restores etc but better than nothing.

If it were me Id look at picking up a second hand tape drive to backup the 2TB NAS box.

RangeR

kmick wrote: »

If it were me Id look at picking up a second hand tape drive to backup the 2TB NAS box.

I will not be given any more money. I have to make do with what I have. I MIGHT get a better budget WHEN sh!t hits the fan but not before.

Thanks to all.

jpl888

RangeR wrote: »

Hi guys,

We are a small business [7 users] with 2 or 3 servers. Server types include the usual, PDC, Exchange, SQL Server...

I'm trying to find a backup solution without costing a bomb. I know you can't put a price on your business in the case of DR we certainly can't afford thousands to implement a backup solution.

I also love Open Source software and would like to give it a try but can't find anything to suit what we want.

Critical Requirements:

• Backup to allow bare metal restore [or as close as possible]
• Backup open files
• Backup Exchange, SQL Server, etc
• Backup complete systems including permissions, registry etc
• Backup of VMWare images

Secondary requirements

• As above but for desktop machines
• Would prefer not to use tape but HDD for short term backup and optical for long term.

A cross between BackupPC and Amanda would be ideal but would look for any other recommendations.

Have you come across Bacula?

RangeR

jpl888 wrote: »

Have you come across Bacula?

I looked at it before I originally started this thread. There was a reason I discounted it but for the life of me I don't know why. I've just revisited their website and it does seem pretty good. I may revisit the program when I have time.

Thanks.

jpl888

I was looking into using it at one stage but it seemed like overkill when I just wanted to dump to tape and have something I could restore from using a Live CD.

As far as I got with it it seems to have all the features of Amanda but it's easier to configure.

rolion

Lads,dunno your work environment but mine,when is about backup & restoring,if i do something 'cheap' and 'later'...better start writing my resume !

From my experience,when dealing with internal users and external customers,there are no space for compromise regarding backups,restore,availability and offline/online restoring points...

Have fun.

jpl888

rolion wrote: »

Lads,dunno your work environment but mine,when is about backup & restoring,if i do something 'cheap' and 'later'...better start writing my resume !

From my experience,when dealing with internal users and external customers,there are no space for compromise regarding backups,restore,availability and offline/online restoring points...

Have fun.

It depends entirely on what you mean by cheap. The OP has time he can spend getting things right which is a cost in itself, he is just not in a position to make capital outlay.

Every one of my customers uses a program which is freely available and modifiable. I have spent not inconsiderable time making sure it works, have relied upon it for disaster recovery on numerous occasions and regularly have to restore single files from it.

Obviously if it doesn't work my customer is going to leave, so it needs to be right. I find the most unreliable part of my particular equation is the tape drives and/or tapes, but I get emailed a report every night and if the tape/drive has failed or somebody forgot to swap the tape, I fire off an email to get it sorted.

RangeR

I've been given the duty of backing up my company's [not customer's] data with minimal [no] budget. Of course I'd love to do things properly but if the money is not there, the money is not there. Would appreciate some of you getting off the auld soap box. Yes, we all know what will happen when [not if] the sh!t hits the fan. I don't know of many bean counters that care or even realise the consequences. So enough with the preaching. I'm looking for options within my minimal budget. I know I don't have the best solution out there, but I have the best solution that I can afford [money and time].

I don't have the authority to just take money from the company for ANY reason. I also don't have the time to spend researching and testing every product out there. I have my full time job to perform and it doesn't include IT Manager. To be honest, it doesn't even include IT / helpdesk but we have no one else to do it. I'm sure you know the drill.

I know all the backup theory. I know what should be done and what shouldn't but this is the real world. Companies have to prioritise their budgets on what THEY think is best. Our company is just hedging that nothing will happen in the short to midterm.

My "job" is to minimise the downtime when the time comes.

jpl888

RangeR wrote: »

I've been given the duty of backing up my company's [not customer's] data with minimal [no] budget. Of course I'd love to do things properly but if the money is not there, the money is not there. Would appreciate some of you getting off the auld soap box. Yes, we all know what will happen when [not if] the sh!t hits the fan. I don't know of many bean counters that care or even realise the consequences. So enough with the preaching. I'm looking for options within my minimal budget. I know I don't have the best solution out there, but I have the best solution that I can afford [money and time].

I don't have the authority to just take money from the company for ANY reason. I also don't have the time to spend researching and testing every product out there. I have my full time job to perform and it doesn't include IT Manager. To be honest, it doesn't even include IT / helpdesk but we have no one else to do it. I'm sure you know the drill.

I know all the backup theory. I know what should be done and what shouldn't but this is the real world. Companies have to prioritise their budgets on what THEY think is best. Our company is just hedging that nothing will happen in the short to midterm.

My "job" is to minimise the downtime when the time comes.

As long as you have enough time to check it's backing up what you think it should be and to do some test restores (disaster recovery and file only) then you'll be alright.

voxpop

Bacuala is pretty good - what Ive implemented here for multi server backups - it a bit of a pain to setup and has no decent gui - thats the main downfall - but it excels at doing the actual backups.

For SQL server, I use a sql server job that runs a full/incremental backup and scp (pscp.exe) it to a linux backup server where its compressed,named and an email is sent to me. Works very well and cost nothing.

jpl888

voxpop wrote: »

Bacuala is pretty good - what Ive implemented here for multi server backups - it a bit of a pain to setup and has no decent gui - thats the main downfall - but it excels at doing the actual backups.

For SQL server, I use a sql server job that runs a full/incremental backup and scp (pscp.exe) it to a linux backup server where its compressed,named and an email is sent to me. Works very well and cost nothing.

Now there you go OP, Voxpop sounds like he could save you a good bit of time with configuration. Not sure what you do about online backup of your Exchange database and what not though.

jpl888

Here's some info on backing up Exchange with Bacula

http://wiki.bacula.org/doku.php?id=application_specific_backups:exchange_server