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Windows Server 2003 / 2008 Backups

Hello all,
I have a machine running Windows Server 2003, on which is located a share. I need to make daily backups of that share to another share on a different server running Windows Server 2008. I will schedule the backup to run each night at midnight. What would be the best way to go about doing this?

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KeterHD

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BoxunloX

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@KetterHD - Thank you for all of the great information. I do not have the option of using SyncToy. The server I am talking about is a DoD server and there are very strict rules as to what software may be installed. NT Backup seems to be the best option in this case. The share I am backing up will only be used for the next two weeks but it will be used 24 hours a day so I definitely need the VSS capability of backing up files that are currently in use. I plan to run the backup at least once a day at midnight and probably once around lunchtime. Also, the server will be backing up to another server on the same subnet so to mitigate any possible corruptions in the single backup file I may even backup the backup locally to the backup server......that was a mouthful.

I'm going to do a little more research on NT backup and I'll update you tomorrow with what I end up doing.

KeterHD

Great. If you're asking me, do two separate backups. Say, one during the mid-day backs up into file01 and one at night backs up into file02. Also, if you want to lessen the load, you could do a full backup at night and incremental backup during the day. That would make backups much shorter.

BoxunloX

ASKER

The way I am planning to do it is to do Full backups on Sunday and Wednesday, and Incremental backups twice a day for each day in between. Restoring in the case of a crash will be a bit slower but the faster backups is worth it. I'll keep you updated!

vaibhavjaiman

You can use the robocopy (free utility from the microsoft) for the same and thereafter use its GUI tool

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KeterHD

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Don

I myself would use DFS to replicate this share to the other server in realtime

Step-by-Step Guide to Distributed File System (Dfs)

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb727150.aspx

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Omer_Saeed

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BoxunloX

ASKER

I ended up using the NTBackup utility along with file verification and everything worked great. I had 100% up-time on the server and the backups worked like a charm. Thanks again!