SM17CH
asked on
Backing up SBS 2003 server with external hard drive. Best Practices and Software?
Hey,
If we where to choose an external hard drive as our back up media, for a 2003 S.B.S whats the best procedure and software to use to ensure the most efficent and reliable backup?
I understand it would be difficult to backup the server files as they are constantly in use, but I dont think we really need to. If we setup raid 1 and used the external drive just to backup exchange data and company files do you think that would be ok? What are the downsides of doing it this way?
What software would you use?
Regards
Smitch
If we where to choose an external hard drive as our back up media, for a 2003 S.B.S whats the best procedure and software to use to ensure the most efficent and reliable backup?
I understand it would be difficult to backup the server files as they are constantly in use, but I dont think we really need to. If we setup raid 1 and used the external drive just to backup exchange data and company files do you think that would be ok? What are the downsides of doing it this way?
What software would you use?
Regards
Smitch
ASKER
Sometimes we might need to pul a file out of the backup from a particular week/day and a full backup wouldnt allow for this.
Maybe we could do a full backup of the system once a month, then weekly or nightly do a backup of just the company files that have changed for that day.
Maybe we could do a full backup of the system once a month, then weekly or nightly do a backup of just the company files that have changed for that day.
The internal backup is the way to go but if you're looking for additional backup types and a few extra bells and whistles then you should look into BackupAssist @ http://www.backupassist.com/index.html. This builds upon the interal backup wizard and gives you everything you can possibly need.
WHAT? What are you talking about? The full backup allows you to pull individual files - I've done it many times before. Are you referring to the Backup Wizards? If so, I understand - as I said, I don't like them either - but that doesn't mean you shouldn't use the built in Backup tool - you can even use the wizards to backup and the tool manually to restore.
You probably should read my backup comment (it started as a comment here I would paste in but go so long I turned it into a web page).
http://www.lwcomputing.com/tips/static/backup.asp
Is there third party software you can use? Yes. Should you? I see no reason why you should. If you don't understand how the built in backup works, then you should take some time and experiment with (preferably on a non-production system).
You probably should read my backup comment (it started as a comment here I would paste in but go so long I turned it into a web page).
http://www.lwcomputing.com/tips/static/backup.asp
Is there third party software you can use? Yes. Should you? I see no reason why you should. If you don't understand how the built in backup works, then you should take some time and experiment with (preferably on a non-production system).
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Actually, I don't like the built in backup wizard because they don't generally do anything other than full backups which to me, is a huge waste of backup space and time.
However, the built in backup will properly backup exchange and using shadow copy should backup any open files.