Help with backup strategy

[titan97]

I'm looking for some help on the best backup strategy for my (small-ish) home server. I'm running Windows Home Server 2011 and every so often it gets wonky and I need to reinstall the OS, which is a PITA.

I've come up with a list of 12 wants/needs and ranked them by priority:

[LIST=1]
[*]Quick OS restore
[*]Long OS backup retention
[*]Daily OS backup
[*]Data duplication (RAID/DriveBender)
[*]Offsite Data backup
[*]Daily Data backup
[*]OS duplication (RAID/DriveBender)
[*]External (onsite) OS backup
[*]External (onsite) Data backup
[*]Quick Data restore
[*]Long Data backup retention
[*]Offsite OS backup
[/LIST]

Here are the general uses of the server:

[LIST=1]
[*]Data storage & backup
[*]Shared printer/printer server
[*]Client PC backup
[*]media server
[*]torrent seed box
[*]Folding@Home
[/LIST]

Hardware includes:

[LIST]
[*]ASUS P5Q-Pro
[*]C2D E7300 @3.4GHz
[*]6GB RAM
[*]WD 160GB RE (internal)(Boot drive)
[*]WD 1.5TB Black (internal)
[*]WD 500GB Black (internal) (matched pair)
[*]WD 500GB Black (internal) (matched pair)
[*]WD 120GB (internal) (non-matched pair)
[*]WD 120GB (internal) (non-matched pair)
[*]WD 2TB Black (external) in single-bay eSATA enclosure
[*]DVD-R/W DL
[/LIST]

I currently use CrashPlan+ Unlimited to backup the whole machine (OS + Data). Twice a day WHS makes a backup of the whole machine to the 2TB external drive, which has quickly run out of room. I'm looking to buy a 3TB WD Red drive to replace the 2TB Black unit, then move the 2TB drive to the server. The server runs DriveBender to turn all of the various drives into one pooled drive and does file-level duplication, too. With data duplication turned on, I am using roughly 2.3TB of the 2.7TB available.

Since I'm in the process of reinstalling WHS, and I have the ability to start from a clean slate, what would you recommend I do for a backup strategy? Am I missing any important topics to consider when I rank my wants/needs?

 

[FrostBite]

Woah, woah woah. While I know you are asking for a backup strategy, your number one concern is "Quick OS restore," but you shouldn't be restoring/reinstalling your OS at all. What do you mean WHS gets "wonky" and requires a reinstall? Does your computer fail to boot? Does WHS start to drop drives/folders? I think you need to figure that out first because WHS should be running fine in the first place.

WHS + DriveBender should work fine, and it should be fitting your needs.

 

[hotcrandel]

I would be inclined to ditch the 120GB and maybe even the 500GB internal drives and replace them with something else with more capacity. I'm sure they are perfectly good but these four drives could be replaced with a single drive that costs $90, save on heat/electricity and could simplify the build.

I would try and put as many drives inside of the case instead of having externals sitting next to the tower.

I've heard mirroring the server OS (RAID1) is a good idea.

 

[titan97]

My issues with WHS typically include one or more of these problems:

Failure to backup to the external drive
Failure to backup the client PCs (service fails to start, typically)
WHSConnector on client PCs doesn't see the server as online
Client PCs can no longer print to the server's printer
Other services fail to start (typically WHS Initialization and all dependent services, but sometimes other random services, too)

Note that none of these problems are present when freshly installed and the server works fine for several months. Then it typically snowballs. I will research and fix one issue, then a few weeks later another issue will pop up. Eventually my rear end is in the doghouse because my wife is upset. She got used to WHSv1 and how well it worked, (consistently), yet I convinced her to let me upgrade to 2011. :-D

Unless I'm missing something, these issues are more typical of a software issue than a hardware/drive issue. To answer FrostBite's questions, the WHS will boot just fine and it has never dropped a drive/folder (knock on wood).

 

[titan97]

I would be inclined to ditch the 120GB and maybe even the 500GB internal drives and replace them with something else with more capacity. I'm sure they are perfectly good but these four drives could be replaced with a single drive that costs $90, save on heat/electricity and could simplify the build.

It's the pack-rat in me that doesn't want to give up on the older drives. Hell, I turned my pair of old 40GB Maxtor screamers into an external USB drive for the kids' Wii. Never have to worry about scratched game discs again. ;-)

I would try and put as many drives inside of the case instead of having externals sitting next to the tower.

I only have one external drive, which is now the backup drive. I like to keep it external in case of an oh-sh** moment and I have to leave the house immediately. I can grab the drive and be out the door will all of our memories and documents quickly. Of course, CrashPlan+ gives me the same benefit, albeit subject to the upload speed of my ISP (5Mbps).

I've heard mirroring the server OS (RAID1) is a good idea.

After the 3TB drive, my next upgrade to this machine would be a pair of mirrored SSDs. I'm looking through the FS/ST forum for a good deal on some used drives in the <100GB size range.

 

[kac77]

I think before thinking about backup you need to fix your storage issue. It seems to me you are already short on space within the server. I personally detest WHS, but different strokes for different folks we'll focus on what you came here for.

So anyway:

1. Plan to increase storage space in general. You can't plan effectively if your source is almost full. When you plan for storage go for at least double the size you think you'll need. Personally I feel 2TB drives are the sweet spot and I usually go for Raid 6 setups.

2. You don't have to mirror your OS drive for home use. Instead grab Clonezilla or an alternative and create an image of your OS drive setup. Save it to a USB stick or whatever media you have then put it some place safe.

3. Figure out what kind of backup solution you want. Third Party is probably the cheapest, followed by disk backup, then finally tape. If you did step one disk backup is an alternative since you have what you think you'll need twice over. For disk backup there are tons of free solutions. There's what's built into Windows and there's rsync. There's more but all of them basically do the same thing.

For home I usually backup once a week since the file server is mainly for serving media. If you have lots of documents that get updated regularly move to backing up your data once every midnight or so.

Hmm I think that's it.

 

[dar124]

My issues with WHS typically include one or more of these problems:

Failure to backup to the external drive
Failure to backup the client PCs (service fails to start, typically)
WHSConnector on client PCs doesn't see the server as online
Client PCs can no longer print to the server's printer
Other services fail to start (typically WHS Initialization and all dependent services, but sometimes other random services, too)

Just an FYI, not sure if it'll help you any but I saw one of your issues and it reminded me of something that I just recently went thru.

LightsOut was saying my WHS 2011 server was offline and the connector software on my desktop and laptop wouldnt let me connect to server. I ended up finding out that the server had "unexpectedly powered off" and when it restarted the date was back in 2001. After changing the date to 2012 and doing a reboot, all was normal again.

Again, just my 2 cents.

 

[titan97]

@dar124, Thanks. I will remember that. So far, the new install is working well.