Backup advice (physical and virtual)

[djones]

I'm looking for some advice on backup infrastructure for the following:

 

1x Physical DC

1x Physical host running:

2x Hyper-V VMs (1 DC/File Server (all roles) & 1 Member Server (WSUS, WDS, AV, etc))

 

All servers are running 2008 R2.

 

I'd like to backup to NAS (daily) and then weekly using portable USB HDDs for off-site storage. We have an old (v9.1 IIRC) version of BE that if used will obviously need upgrading to v2010.

 

So, do I go for BE 2010 and take advantage of upgrade pricing? If I do, would BE be installed on the physical host and set to backup the VMs at that level? Am I correct in thinking that that would then still enable file level restore of the VMs and Virtual Discs without the need to backup each one separately from within the VMs? I'm a little confused by the licensing model and different versions of BE! Alternatively, I could try DPM...

 

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

[glennda]

How much data are you talking?

 

I use Backup exec 12d for my exchange/ad and sql servers and a couple of file servers backing up to an MSA 2 (which has 12 x 1tb disks)

Plus using Backuppc on a ubuntu machine backing up to an MSA60 with 12 x 500gb disks.

 

Im assuming you don't quite have has much data as me but you need to work out how much data is being backed up and the size of the compressed files etc

[ChrisH]

DPM is good and will integrate well for backing up Hyper V.

[djones]

Hasn't DPM got an issue with USB HDDs?

 

Got to check current backup size!

[djones]

Anyone able to answer this: If BE was installed on the physical host, would it then backup the VMs and virtual discs in one go allowing file level recovery without the need to have each VM backed up separately from within each? If so, what version (i.e. agents) would be needed? Trying to work out costs! I know DPM is *a lot* cheaper but I'm not yet convinced it will do all I'd like although in fairness, I only have experience of BE at present.