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zoltankarl

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I need a reliable backup software to create image files of Windows servers.

Greetings Experts.

I need to create image files of all my servers and store them on a network drive or an external hard drive.  I considered using the latest version of Ghost Corporate edition, but it does not create image files of RAID disks.  Out of the 7 servers I need to create images of, 3 of them use a RAID 5 configuration, so I was told by Symantec that Ghost is highly not recommended.  They recommend using 'Live State Recovery Advanced Server' which is the new version of V2i Protector Server Edition.  It is said to work great on RAID disks and would work on all version of Windows Server (some of my servers are on NT4, some on Server 2K and one on Server 2K3).  The only problem is, Live State Recovery costs close to $1200 per server... much too costly for such a simple task.  Ghost Corporate has a minimum of 10 licenses, but still only comes out to $400 in total... which is alot easier to swallow.  

To make a long story short... I need a reliable piece of software (under or around $500 total) that will allow me to back up my WinNT4, 2K and 2K3 servers using RAID 5's to a network drive or external hard drive.  Any and all suggestions are greatly appreciated.  Thanks in advance.
Avatar of Lee W, MVP
Lee W, MVP
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ServerMagic by PowerQuest/Symantec - only, I think it's around $900.  Most of the other drive imaging programs will recognize a server OS and not run.
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zoltankarl

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Thanks for the post leew, but I was told by Symantec that ServerMagic only works on Novell now... they are really pushing that Live State program.  Judging from your post, I assume you know that PowerQuest was bought out by Symantec and it is becoming increasingly hard to find older versions of their software packages.  Even if I tried to use an older version of ServerMagic, I was told by a friend in the field that it will most likely not work on Windows 2K3 Server.

I know it's an unfavorable situation I'm in, but keep racking those brains.... 'cause I'm all out of ideas.
I Think if the old version supported Windows 2000 then it would support Windows 2003 - the file system really hasn't changed significantly.  If you have an older version, I'd suggest coming up with a test server and give it a shot.

Yes, I know symantec owns it now (annoyed at that really).  I also knew it was generally for a Novell product - HOWEVER, I had recently seen posts here suggesting it's available for Windows.
Thanks for the info; any fast ideas on where to download a copy (I think the old one was freeware), before I start looking for it on my own?  What is your experience with the product?  I have used PowerQuest ImageCenter to create images on the workstation end (works great), if I could find a program that is just as simple and effective, I would be a happy tech.  Another question, can I save to and restore from an external hard drive or network drive using ServerMagic?  The reason I ask is, if the program requires me to boot from a floppy (like ImageCenter), I may not have access to networked drives or USB devices at that point and won't be able to access my image file to back up to (or restore from).  Finally, have you (or anyone you know) successfully created an image of a RAID device using ServerMagic?  Was a restore successful?  

>>>Yes, I know symantec owns it now (annoyed at that really).  I also knew it was generally for a Novell product - HOWEVER, I had recently seen posts here suggesting it's available for Windows.<<<<

I am also not happy with that change.  PowerQuest made some very easy and dependable products at no or little cost to own.  Their products have gotten out of me of some pretty tough situations before.  Oh well...  such is life.

hi, zoltankarl

How about when installing new servers to plant the AC on a secondary primary partition and back it up later here then in case you have a failover reinstall the Servers as normal import the AC from the network drive/backup tape..

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Cyber-Dude

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Thank you all for your posts.  Cyber-Dude, Acronis worked out great!!  It made me a nice clean stable (and tested) backup of my RAID Server running Windows Server 2003.  To top it all off, it has the option to burn them right to CD's, a great way to archive images offsite.  Excellent product that I would recommend to anyone.  The home user edition is only $50 and it lets you create incremental images of your machine to save time (it only images 'used' areas of your drive, so time is saved skipping over empty sectors), I'm considering buying that for my machine =)  

I will go with Ghost for the other non-RAID servers.  A little over budget (approx. $1000 total), but the peace of mind is worth it.

Thanks again to all.

--Zoltan--