Folders to backup, SBS2003 R2

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sdotbrucato

[H]ard|Gawd
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Oct 7, 2005
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Okay well when I was new to SBS and setup the NTbackup, I set it to backup both C and D drive in entirety, well now that its been over a year, these backups are getting pretty hefty and I was thinking maybe I was including things that arent really needed. So basically, what are the important folders needed, and whats not needed for backups?

I've googled the hell out of this and it really isnt helping me.

To give everyone a little background. It's SBS 2003 R2 and is acting as DNS/DHCP, AD, Exchange and file server. Folder redirection and roaming are on for all clients. Other than the things that come with SBS the only LOB software is Quickbooks.

Basically it's a stock install of SBS, Quickbooks server and ESET. The exchange store and everything else that the setup allowed me to move are on my Data partition.

Hopefully I provided enough info, if not just ask.

TIA
-Steven
 
Instead of trimming what data you backup, have you approaching "pruning/cleaning" data..such as old data?

Any redundant or old user data? Users no longer there?
Same goes for mailbxoes....old user mailboxes? Or can you have your users groom through their mailboxes....cleaning out the sent items and deleted items folders.

Honestly if you try to go through and set exclusions for program files and the windows directory....you're going through a lot of effort for very little payback. A default install will have about 6 gigs for those...they aren't substantial.

How much data in on your data partition?
What size is your backup media?
 
I agree with the stonecat. If you have the space on your backup media then continue to do full backups. Clean out the crap you don't need anymore if you are running low on space. You can can sfaely exclude the "ClientApps" folder if you must. :D
Posted via [H] Mobile Device
 
Fair enough, thats what I'll do when I have time. I was already thinking of archiving a lot of stuff away as is, I just thought that adding the entire drive was kind of newbish on my part lol.
 
Nah, that's not newbish if you have the space. I always do full backups of everything if I can. Makes it easier for disaster recovery. :D
 
YeOldeStonecat said:
Instead of trimming what data you backup, have you approaching "pruning/cleaning" data..such as old data?

Any redundant or old user data? Users no longer there?
Same goes for mailbxoes....old user mailboxes? Or can you have your users groom through their mailboxes....cleaning out the sent items and deleted items folders.
Click to expand...

Better yet get an approved deletion cycle.
I delete accounts after 30 days and data after 45 days.

Anytime someone quits/fired I set Outlook appointments up every 30 and 45 days.

OP, a good thing that might help you is this tool: http://windirstat.info/
It'll graphically show you what's taking up so much space on your disks. Here's their screenshot of it:
windirstat.jpg


Alternatively, I have an automated script that gives me a directory and size listing of all the folders on my Data drive on the server, along with a total. I keep a record of that each week, that way I can see exactly what folders grow. If you want something like that, let me know and I'll post up the script...
 
Techie:
WinDirStat is pretty awesome, and helped me convince the powers to be about the downtime this weekend!
If you'd be willing to share the script that would be great too, I can never have too many scripts either in use or archived away. lol
 
sdotbrucato said:
Techie:
WinDirStat is pretty awesome, and helped me convince the powers to be about the downtime this weekend!
If you'd be willing to share the script that would be great too, I can never have too many scripts either in use or archived away. lol
Click to expand...

Downtime to just delete old data??? You can do that during business hours, I'd think....

I've got a scheduled task that calls "AutoDiskChecker.bat" once a week.
Inside that bat file is these lines. It runs the command, outputs to a text file, then calls a vbs script. The things you would be wanting to adjust is what drive or folder you're running this on, as well as the from/to and SMTP server info... Anything underlined, but obviously you can do what you want with it.
Code: 
diruse.exe /* /m /, [U][I][B]D:\[/B][/I][/U] > D:\AutoDiskChecker\results.txt
call sendit.vbs
exit

Then my sendit.vbs takes that output from the txt file and emails it to me:
Code: 
Set objEmail = CreateObject("CDO.Message")
objEmail.From = "[U][I][B][email protected][/B][/I][/U]"
objEmail.To = "[B][I][U][email protected][/U][/I][/B]"
objEmail.Subject = "Disk Usage Report"
objEmail.Textbody = "See attached file."
objEmail.AddAttachment "D:\AutoDiskChecker\results.txt"
objEmail.Configuration.Fields.Item("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/sendusing") = 2
objEmail.Configuration.Fields.Item("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpserver") = "[U][I][B]exchange.domain.com[/B][/I][/U]"
objEmail.Configuration.Fields.Item("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpserverport") = 25
objEmail.Configuration.Fields.Update
objEmail.Send
 
TechieSooner said:
Downtime to just delete old data??? You can do that during business hours, I'd think....
Click to expand...
I need to run an offline defrag on the Exchange DB. It's getting WAY too big for it's own good. I may just archive the 10 mailboxes and start fresh (might be easier/faster to do)

The office is owned by a close family friend and I was usually in there twice a week taking care of things and I was a log whore, but with money being the way it is, they only ask me to come in with things get bad... like now. lol
 
sdotbrucato said:
I need to run an offline defrag on the Exchange DB. It's getting WAY too big for it's own good. I may just archive the 10 mailboxes and start fresh (might be easier/faster to do)

The office is owned by a close family friend and I was usually in there twice a week taking care of things and I was a log whore, but with money being the way it is, they only ask me to come in with things get bad... like now. lol
Click to expand...

OK. Just make sure you backup all of the edb files first...
If I were you I'd probably just RDP in on Saturday morning (or whenever they've scheduled it), dismount the store, start the backup of the edb file.

Once that's done, start your ESEUTIL /D and then let it run. Between backing up the current EDB and defragmenting it, on an 80GB store... You might be looking at all day. Best to start early :D
 
This was basically the plan. I do full backups on weekdays, so Friday's backup should be good to go for a late friday/saturday defrag.
 
TechieSooner said:
If you start it at 6PM on Friday I'd fully expect that to be done by Saturday...
Click to expand...

That's what I was hoping for.

OT:I can't believe this server has been going for almost two years now and this is the first time I've had to do any maintenance other than preventative. Unfortunately the PCs at the office are reaching their 4 year mark, meaning warranties and service agreements are gone. UGH
 
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