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Ghosting a server

Hi there :)

Is it possible, and reliable, to backup a total harddrive ghost image of my SBS2000 server (Win2000, Exchange, ISA) on another external USB2 harddisk drive, every day? And is it possible to restore the entire server this way again?

DVation191

The only way to get backup all that information perfectly would be to bring the server offline and do an offline backup. Are you sure you want your server to go down every night? If you are ok with that, then it would work.

Shaohs

ASKER

Does that mean that Ghost 9.0 cant make a total image of the server, if its online? Why?
If so i didnt care the server being offline every night, would it be a reliable sollution?

DVation191

Ghost 9.0 does not support 2000 server and won't run. Unless you run it offline I don't think it will work. To run Ghost with a server OS you need the enterprise edition

Shaohs

ASKER

Okay then. So if i get the Enterprise Edition then it is possible?

DVation191

As far as I know, Nortong Ghost 2003 is the only version that claims to be able to do a full hard drive backup without shutting down. Unforunately, that version does not support Server 2000.

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Shaohs

ASKER

Many thanks to all :)

Member_2_231077

If you ghost it and never do a proper backup your Exchange transaction log will never get cleaned up and will eventually fill up the hard disk.

smandell

Symantec V2i Protector® Server Edition is now Symantec LiveState Recovery. Unfortunately this software doesn't come with sql or exchange agents which means it has to stop the services while it backs up (no email when services stopped).

A better solution would be http://www.dantz.com/en/products/win_business/compare.dtml which includes an agent for backing up without downtime.