What backup software do you use?

[BackCat3]

Hello Guys,

What backup software do you use for your Windows 2003 servers that in the event of a failure you can restore promptly? Also what do you think about the uprise of cloud based backup software?

[john]

CA ArcServe is what were moving onto and it works fine on 2003, 2003 R2, 2008 and 2008 R2

[2097]

Acronis for all servers

backup Exec for File server , Just because it backs up onto a tape drive

[Mcshammer_dj]

ntbackup with a series of sripts on the srever 2003 to tape

Server backup on server 2008 to RDX disks

[apeo]

DPM 2010 and currently WBS/ntbackup for secondary/disaster recovery but im looking for a better solution.

[sparkeh]

At my CCx schools I use Backupexec 2010R2 (RM recommended and tested) and at vanilla school Acronis Backup and Restore 10 as it came with free virtual clients when I bought it which made it peanuts for our setup compared to other options.

Pro and cons to both really. I find BackupExec (like most Symantec products) easy to setup but mind bendingly difficult to get your head around and use. It is very powerful at what is does though.
Acronis was terrible to setup and get running but an idiot could use it to implement a good backup strategy.

[Sylv3r]

We moved from BackupExec to Yosemite around 2 years ago but will probably move back to BackupExec this year. The Yosemite has done the job for little money over the last 18 months, but I think I preferred the BackupExec product alround - it's only the price that lets it down, especially when updating existing licences or agents.

[irsprint84]

DPM 2010, cheap on volume licencing plus I dont have to pay £400 per sharepoint/ sql/ random crap licence

[ChrisH]

DPM 2010. So easy to use and it works so well it makes me suspicious some times!

[Edu-IT]

BackupExec 12.5 and BackupExec 2010 R2.

[qcomer]

We just moved from Backup Exec to Avamar and I love it!

[glennda]

We use Backup Exec and its ok although we are moving to BackupPc for all our file servers reduces the amounts of data 10 fold

[sister_annex]

We use VEEAM to backup all of our VMware virtuals (2000 Adv, 2003, 2003 R2, 2008 R2) (~45 in total) these go to three storage servers and then the latest backup goes to a removable 2Tb disk during the day (by means of robocopy) which usually has ~500Gb free when finished.

The de-duplication in VEEAM is stunning so space on disk doesn't seem to be an issue (yet!)

Depending on size we can recover a normal file/ print server in about 2 hours (from start to back on the network ready to use) a DC, exchange or SQL will take a little longer due to the additional services but is still much quicker than tape!

Oh, all the disks on the backup servers are encrypted so they can be stored off site without too much worry of data being stolen

Also VEEAM has a nifty file browser built in that will give you explorer access to the disks as they would be on a live server (great for recovering multiple files and folders) it will also run a server in an isolated mode if need be.

I have a lot of time for VEEAM, the software is great and it has saved our school hours in backup recovery time. I've done at least 4 corrupt server recoveries due to one thing and another and every time the recovery has gone off without a problem and the servers have been back up and running in less than a working day!

Granted it is not cheap, but when you consider the cost + servers and HDD storage, against tapes, tape devices and BE licences it pretty much balances and you get so much extra


Obviously this whole post is useless if you are not running VMware

[Bertv]

I am using NtBackup on my 2003 servers.
It's efficient (and free) and I start it with a batch file running on the 2003 server. The backup 'server' is an XP workstation. The batch file is called by a scheduled task.
The backup computer has a share disk(or partition) for each day of the week. I backup the user's data from Monday to Friday (D: drive + system state), and on Saturday night I am doing a full backup (c: and D: and system state).
Monday to Friday for the Data drive
Every Saturday for the full backup.

As I can keep only two backups for each day of the week (space restriction), my batch file will automatically delete the oldest one.

With this solution, I basically keep a backup of the users data for 6 weeks.
As a bonus, I installed Blat on the server and it sends me an Email reporting the status of the backup.

Here is a report:

Media name: "Sat-06-11.bkf created 6/11/2011 at 8:00 AM"

Backup Type: Normal

Backup started on 6/11/2011 at 8:08 AM.
Backup completed on 6/11/2011 at 9:37 AM.
Directories: 5080
Files: 59662
Bytes: 15,546,301,662
Time: 1 hour, 29 minutes, and 14 seconds
Backup (via shadow copy) of "D: Data"
Backup set #2 on media #1
Backup description: "Set created 6/11/2011 at 8:00 AM"
Media name: "Sat-06-11.bkf created 6/11/2011 at 8:00 AM"

Backup Type: Normal

Backup started on 6/11/2011 at 9:37 AM.
Backup completed on 6/11/2011 at 3:51 PM.
Directories: 51284
Files: 291842
Bytes: 99,578,417,240
Time: 6 hours, 13 minutes, and 35 seconds
Backup (via shadow copy) of "System State"
Backup set #3 on media #1
Backup description: "Set created 6/11/2011 at 8:00 AM"
Media name: "Sat-06-11.bkf created 6/11/2011 at 8:00 AM"

Backup Type: Copy

Backup started on 6/11/2011 at 3:51 PM.
Backup completed on 6/11/2011 at 3:54 PM.
Directories: 416
Files: 3055
Bytes: 668,402,536
Time: 2 minutes and 41 seconds

Here is the batch file:

rem Setting school name (for Email report purpose)
set school= ADHS

rem set variable for email address (for Email report purpose)
set email=youremail@yourdomain.com


Echo.|Command /C Date>DOW
set /p today=<DOW
set DOW=%today:~16,3%
FOR /F "tokens=1-6 delims=/ " %%J IN ('DATE /t') DO SET date1=%%J-%%K-%%L

rem set variable for the day of the week (3 LETTERS MAXIMUM)
set day1=%dow%


If %dow% == Mon set drive=Monday
If %dow% == Tue set drive=Tuesday
If %dow% == Wed set drive=Wednesday
If %dow% == Thu set drive=Thursday
If %dow% == Fri set drive=Friday
If %dow% == Sat set drive=Saturday

rem mapping the disk associated to the day on the backup server
net use f: \\backup\%drive%

Del c:\log.txt


rem ************************************************** ***************************
rem * Recording today's backup' and deleting older files to keep only 2 backups *
rem ************************************************** ***************************

f:\


rem *********************************
rem * moving older.txt to todel.bat *
rem *********************************
type f:\older.txt > f:\todel.bat

rem ***************************************
rem * moving the last backup to older.txt *
rem ***************************************
type f:\new.txt > f:\older.txt

rem **************************************************
rem * Recording today's backup' file name in new.bat *
rem **************************************************
echo del %date1%.bkf > f:\new.txt

rem ***************************
rem * deleteting older backup *
rem ***************************
f:
call todel.bat


rem ***********************
rem * starting backing up *
rem ***********************


if %dow% == Mon ntbackup backup @c:\daily.bks /l:s /f F:\%date1%.bkf
if %dow% == Tue ntbackup backup @c:\daily.bks /l:s /f F:\%date1%.bkf
if %dow% == Wed ntbackup backup @c:\daily.bks /l:s /f F:\%date1%.bkf
if %dow% == Thu ntbackup backup @c:\daily.bks /l:s /f F:\%date1%.bkf
if %dow% == Fri ntbackup backup @c:\daily.bks /l:s /f F:\%date1%.bkf
if %dow% == Sat ntbackup backup @c:\full.bks /l:s /f F:\%date1%.bkf


c:
cd\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows NT\NTBackup\data\
copy backup*.log c:\log.txt
del C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows NT\NTBackup\data\*.log


rem c:\windows\blat c:\log.txt -subject "%school% backup" -to %email%

net use f: /delete

[ccp]

Backup exec for me set up in the following way:
Full weekly backup on to DLT with daily differentials saved to NAS for quick restore.
The daily diffs are then stored on to DLT tape monthly.

Since I have two Campuses to look after I am in the process of setting up a granular WAN to WAN online back up strategy over my backup microlink.
This will be in place when the other Campus' 100Mb link is installed.