HOW DO I IMAGE A RAID 5 ARRAY
Ok all, I posed this question about a year ago and never got a good solution. Here we are again. I am really hoping someone out there can lead me in the right direction if this is even possible.
I have a client that has a HP ML350 server. It's running Server 2008, latest updates as of 10/21/2010. It's running 6 SAS drives for a total available space of 200Gig. It's a RAID 5 config. I simply want to be able to make an image of the server for disaster recovery purposes. I am already backing up data etc. I just want to be able to make an image....maybe off onto an external USB drive etc. If you have a solution, please give me a step-by-step.
Thanks !!
I have a client that has a HP ML350 server. It's running Server 2008, latest updates as of 10/21/2010. It's running 6 SAS drives for a total available space of 200Gig. It's a RAID 5 config. I simply want to be able to make an image of the server for disaster recovery purposes. I am already backing up data etc. I just want to be able to make an image....maybe off onto an external USB drive etc. If you have a solution, please give me a step-by-step.
Thanks !!
Sumesh BNR
make a bootable CD with GHOST and run it and you can make the image in to any other drive whihc have more capacity than the total storage of your source drive. You cant make the whole image including OS when its i running
ASKER
I was told that GHOST cant make raid images. If it can, what version will work ?
Ghost 2003 I have tried in RAID5
ASKER
So being totally new to this, can you give me a step-by-step on how to do this ?
Accepting to sumesbnr , I also suggest you to try for Acronis which is a very good option for backup and recovery. It has got almost all features and reliable. You will get step by step instructions from the following site
http://www.allacronis.com/step-by-step.php
Thanks and hope for the best.
http://www.allacronis.com/step-by-step.php
Thanks and hope for the best.
the issue with Ghost, Acronics, or any other of these windows-based products is that their software needs to support the make/model of Array controller you have. If it does, you are OK. Acronics has a free trial download you can run to test if you can backup OK.
Since you are a rookie when it comes to RAID, then I'll be politically incorrect and say that you need to get somebody else to set it up. Nobody gets fired for not backing up. People get fired for not being able to restore. Testing to see if a trial lets you backup is hardly good enough to know what to do when/if you need to restore. What do you do if the RAID controller dies, or somebody types in something stupid and crashes the system so that it is unbootable? What you have a problem that takes out several disk drives. Do you know how to rebuild the RAID config so that it is running and healthy enough so it is even ready to accept a restore?
Since you are a rookie when it comes to RAID, then I'll be politically incorrect and say that you need to get somebody else to set it up. Nobody gets fired for not backing up. People get fired for not being able to restore. Testing to see if a trial lets you backup is hardly good enough to know what to do when/if you need to restore. What do you do if the RAID controller dies, or somebody types in something stupid and crashes the system so that it is unbootable? What you have a problem that takes out several disk drives. Do you know how to rebuild the RAID config so that it is running and healthy enough so it is even ready to accept a restore?
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Don't forget that you can buy a tape drive, and most standalone tape drives have free single server backup applications with them. I believe that most of them will allow you to run a bare metal or disaster recovery (DR) backup -- I know that HP's Data Protector Express will -- and (not surprising) it works very well with HP ProLiant servers, even with RAID.
Imaging is nice for DR, but if you care about the business assets, you also need to have a plan in place that allows you to recover data from six months, a year, maybe even five or ten years ago. Tape backup can do this very easily and economically.
Imaging is nice for DR, but if you care about the business assets, you also need to have a plan in place that allows you to recover data from six months, a year, maybe even five or ten years ago. Tape backup can do this very easily and economically.
The HP DPE is a fine choice, and can be trusted to do a good job, provided you RTFM :)
ASKER
This solution worked perfect....Although, getting the download to complete took several timed-out attempts...prob connection or server issue on server side...But, once downloaded and installed, the steps were perfect Thanks a million !!
Thanks for feeback.
Have a nice weekend
Nox
Have a nice weekend
Nox