WinServer 2003 backup onto Externel proggy

[Heeter]

Hi all,

Looking for a proggy that will do scheduled complete image backups of a WinServer2003 installation onto an external usb HD.

Will pay whatever is needed for this proggy.

Thanks,

Heeter

 

[kcnychief]

Well "scheduled complete image backups" would be tough - because for a true image you need to do it offline from a PE environment or similar. That being said, Acronis can do a pretty good job of backing up the entire system using VSS. You can actually even create a bootable recovery disc - so if you were to have a crash you could boot to that CD and run some of your mission critical services - while in the background the image is actually re-applying to your server. This minimizes your downtime, and works great. I haven't actually done it, but I will start doing some DR testing soon - I do have it in place, just haven't done the whole proof of concept thing.

 

[Heeter]

Thanks, KC,

Would you recommend a certain version from their site?

There is so many to choose from.


Heeter

 

[kcnychief]

If you are using SBS there is a version for that, else get Echo Server ($499 and $699 respectively). I recommend you download the trials and make sure it meets your needs before purchasing

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

 

[roirraW "edor" ehT]

I use Acronis True Image Echo Workstation, and second kcnychief's recommendation that you test the trial versions to make sure it does what you need first.

You can actually even create a bootable recovery disc - so if you were to have a crash you could boot to that CD and run some of your mission critical services - while in the background the image is actually re-applying to your server. This minimizes your downtime, and works great. I haven't actually done it, but I will start doing some DR testing soon - I do have it in place, just haven't done the whole proof of concept thing.

Are you referring to the Snap Restore function? Word of warning: I haven't tried it recently but one problem that it had from the beginning is if you had more than one partition on your hard drive, not counting the Acronis Secure Zone, that it would delete all the partitions before performing the restore of just your Windows installation partition. Maybe if you want to use Snap Restore, you have to have it perform backups of the entire disk in order for it to work correctly. The GUI doesn't warn you in any way, however.

I was so angry, and so lucky that at that time I had the spare hard drive space that I was performing regular backups of my largest partition - what I call my Data partition, but it was a real pain plus I lost my other custom partitions.

 

[kcnychief]

I believe it is Snap Restore, yes - but as stated I haven't tried it I only know of the existence of it

 

[Heeter]

Awesome, Thanks Guys,


Heeter