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Best solution for enterprise backup

J

jdub12

Limp Gawd
Joined
Apr 23, 2003
Messages
250
I am looking to backup 1 server, and multiple workstations. Its not really the concern to backup the workstations just yet, but more or less to get the server backed up daily and efficiently.

My desire is to have a redundant secondary system that mirrors the primary server. The primary contains lots of networked software that takes time to configure and get running for all of the workstations. It also contains a lot of sensitive data. I know I could do a raid (mirroring) but what happens if say something other than the hard drive goes bad. We need immediate backup of the secondary server to kick on. What would you all suggest as an implementation to this?

I originally thought about trying a Mirra Personal Backup Server. I liked the idea that it could backup anything I wanted real time, however, if the primary server crashes, it will take time to get all of the data from the Mirra Server to a freshly installed copy of Server 2003 on the primary box. I thought that possibly having the Mirra Server backup a daily ghosted image of the primary box's drives might work, but still there would be a down time that needs to be minimized. Is there any affordable way to accomplish this?

Also, with the numerous amounts of backup software out there....my question is: Is there a software piece that will backup the computer and contents and make it simple to restore? If windows goes corrupt, i have to install the OS, then the backup software and then restore the image of the drive correct? Is there anything that will eliminate the reinstallation of the OS and just restore from a NAS or DVD(s), etc? Thanks for all of the help!
 
My advice?

Buy two identical servers. If you already have them, skip to the next step.

Configure the first two drives on your RAID controller as a mirror set. Configure the next 3 (or 4, or 5, etc) as a RAID-5 array.

Do a full system backup including all OS options and registry (and obviously all your data).

If time is an issue, do a full system backup weekly and full data backups nightly.

In order to ensure that your restore is as quick as possible, make sure that you have your arrays configured the same on the backup server.

Most importantly, store your tapes off-site.

Second most important step: get all the data off of the workstations. Trying to back up workstations is a waste of time (especially since users are prone to turning them off).

Here are the possible catastrophes you might encounter:

1) Server hardware (not drive) failure. Just put your old drives into the new server and away you go!

2) One of the mirrored OS drives failure. Replace drive with spare from backup server and mirror set will get rebuilt.

3) One of your RAID-5 array drives fails. Replace drive with spare from backup server and RAID-5 array will be rebuilt.

4) More than one of your RAID-5 drives fails. Replace all drives with spares from backup server and restore from tape.

5) Fire in the server room. Purchase new server and restore from tape.
 
Simple solution is creating a 2-server cluster with shared storage. Can't really go into much detail without even knowing the server OS, or the networked applications you have to support. Oh wait, you mentioned Server 2003, nevermind. Clustering is still an option, long as your apps support a clustered environment.


If you were doing it on Sun, on the other hand, I could go on forever---get paid to do just that, lol.

Unless you're talking a few hundred workstations that need to be backed up with that server, or that server has multi-terabyte/day backup needs, you don't need much software/hardware to do the job.

Even in a large workstation environment, backup can be greatly simplified by centralizing storage via SAN, NAS, or traditional client<->server filesharing. The goal is to backup as little as possible from the workstations. My last job, the workstations had no local dynamic data, so we never had to back them up. They were basically field replaceable units. Trash your workstation? Ok, we'll just jumpstart it over the network and you'll have your workstation back in an hour, or just drop in a new box from spares. Meanwhile, the same user could use any other workstation during that time period and still do exactly the same work he/she normally did. In a managed windows environment, there isn't any reason to backup the workstations.
 
With Windows Server 2003, is it possible on Active Directory to have 2 servers, one mirroring the other? I would like to have no down time if possible so the backup would have to kick on as soon as the other fails. However, the primary server contains software and data that a traditional NAS could not support. The files yes, but I dont believe you can physically install software onto a NAS can you? I guess either way you look at it there will have to be some sort of interaction with the systems when one of the units goes down. I dont want to have to do that, but it looks like the only option...just a matter of how much time has to go into getting the system back online from a backup, correct?
 
Yes, it is possible to have two servers set up like you described. That's how our university is set up. If you'd like, you can call UCCS ( http://www.uccs.edu ) and ask how we've got it set up.
 
Yes, you can cluster, where two physical boxes appear as one logical server. It is also supported on Windows 2000 Advanced Server. Support for clustering on 2003 requires Enterprise or Datacenter edition. However, clustering is a very expensive proposition. If you do cluster, the remaining server will take over for the failed one instantly.
 
any particular backup software that you prefer over another for full system backups and data? I would like to have some sort of backup software that makes it easy to reload the OS and the backup set. Ultimately, if the OS fails, I would rather not have to reload the OS, configure it, get the backup software installed then restore from a backup set. Is there anything that will be able to eliminate the restoration of the OS...so simply restore from the backup set? Also, it needs to support a tape or external drive because well...if the drive goes...it really doesnt help to have the backup set on that drive. Does anyone make software like I proposed?
 
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