Backup Server

Different location is not a good idea depending on the software and link connecting the sites.    You will be pulling data over a slower link that will take forever to complete...what is worse it will take forever to restore.   Not a good solution in my opinion.   You will want to ahve the backup server local...and offsite your tapes.

EndureKona,
Thnka for your suggestion, we are considering wat u said, it will be expensive... the diff location i said isnt really way far from the server its just a few buildings away ...
Now.. ignoring the backup location, can u give me options for setting a secondary backup server..

Thanks again

Yes just join the server to the domain and install Backup Exec and depoly the agents.    The geographical distance is not the problem...the link connecting them does....

EndureKona,
Can u please elobrate on how i join and deploy them..
That is wat is my concern here, i need some detailed guidance..

Thanks
GW

Hello,

could you please give us more information on what you intend to backup? As I can see you have one 2003 dc with dns and dhcp if you have the hardware it's always best to have a second child domain controller, dns and dhcp on standby.

You would achieve this in the same manner get the second server up and running and fully patched then dcpromo joining to the current domain install dns make sure all your servers and dhcp scopes have both primary and secondary dns servers listed on the second server configure dhcp but don't authorize until you need to and turn
off as and when required in a dr scenerio.

I am assuming you have exchange 2003 this will make your options limited you need to make sure you have good backups to restore to it's not best practise installing exchange on a domain controller instead if you hve the hardware keep a server on hot standby thus patched and ready and if and when you need to invoke dr you simply use the DR switch for exchange 2003 of course you would need the information stores thus backups are important if you can upgrade to 2010 you can start using DAG which would give you greater redundancy.

If you can not go to exchange 2010 biut only to 2007 you can go with CCR clustering or SCR, CCR would be my first option you would then perform backups as you normally would.

If for any reason your primary dc failed due to hardware you could then seize the FSMO roles to the backup dc I m also going Under the assumption the 2 sites are linked and can talk to each other either over an MPLS or an alternative site to site VPN.

If there is anything your unsure of please post back

Yes Means Backup server for Main windows SBS2003 as a standby for load balancing OR you want to say the Data Backup Server on a network required..?

For Data Backup server you can try with Freenas ( Network Access Storage ) server.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/freenas/files/
http://freenas.org/documentation:setup_and_user_guide

Regards,
vijay

well, in a SBS environment, you really rely on all services to be up.

my recommendation is do a snapshot style backup

product like backup exec system recovery, storagecraft, acronis


all of them snapshot your current server and store an image in server (in your case, a server in a different building)

if any disaster happen, you can use this image and restore to a different hardware (yes, these product should support independent hardware recovery).



The other product i would recommend is platespin forge, which is a hardware solution.
for more information read http://www.novell.com/products/forge/




En of the day, it is really depends on cost. vs efficiency of backup

The onboard SBS backup will do a great job. Backup to 3 x usb drives.
Since the other is a file server: 2 x options: Backup to the SBS server using onboard NT BU or use DFS (If R2) to keep a copy on the SBS server. It will backup those files too if timing is set to start after DFS is finished.
Alternatively BU straight to the same USB BU drives (use UNC path) hanging off the SBS.
Hope that helps
Olaf

Hi limjianan,
Your idea of sanpshot style backup is what we are looking at. We are using symantec backup exec 11d with this application can we make an image which we can restore on the additional server (considering we have same h/w configuration on both machines.)

Thanks to all for your response.
We will consider all these options however the snapshot style looked more sensible

GW

backup exec 11d is not the best option for imaging. there is a addon call IDR, which i don not think it provide a good restore experience.


in the same family, there is backup exec system recovery, which are mainly for snapshot backup. these do hardware independent (without the same h/w configuration, include any virtual environment)

We already have symantec ghost soultion suite can we use this instead of purchasing the system recovery.
And also  
How is this exec system recovery differnt from symantec ghost soultion suite.

I can see i am almost getting there and guys thanks a lot.
GW

Brilliant .. thanks a lot for all the help