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Windows 2008 Server Backup to cloud instead of external disk drive (USB)

Our Windows 2008 Server is currently backed up every night to external disk drive attached via USB cable (manually rotated) using Wbadmin, and we are considering a cloud solution. Currently Wbadmin with daily full backup, starting at a time in the evening, is in place.

Questions:

(1) The Wbadmin help states that the destination folder will be overwritten every time, and in case the backup fails, there may not be any backup available it all. Consideration: create 5 subfolders on cloud, one for every day of the week, create 5 entries in the task scheduler, with Wbadmin backing up to the respective subfolder. Is this a viable option, or how is this done normally (assuming that multiple backups are maintained in case one of them fails)? Since backups are to run at night, the process would need to be automated.

(2) How is the server-to-cloud connection established? IPsec / VPN? What must be done to assure access rights, and to assure the data can be restored to the server if necessary?

Randy Downs

Maybe this will help.

The key features of this solution are:

Reliable service: By adopting Azure Backup, you get a backup service which is highly available. The service is multi-tenanted and you do not have to worry about managing the underlying compute or storage.

Reliable storage: Azure Backup is built on top of reliable cloud storage which is backed by high SLAs. You do not have to worry about capital or operation expenses in maintaining the storage. Furthermore you have the choice of backing up to LRS (Locally Redundant Storage) or GRS (Geo Replication storage) storage. While LRS enables 3 copies of the data in the same geo which protects against local hardware failures; GRS provides 3 additional copies (a total of 6 copies) in a paired data center. This ensures that your backup data is highly available. Even if there is an Azure-site-level disaster, the backup data is safe with us.

Secure: Azure backup data is encrypted at source, during transmission and stored encrypted in Azure. The encryption key is stored at source and is never transmitted or stored in Azure. The encryption key is required to restore any of the data and only the customer has full access to the data in the service.

Offsite protection: Rather than paying for offsite tape backup solutions, customers can backup to Azure which provides a compelling solution with tape-like-semantics at a very low cost.

Simplicity: Azure Backup provides a familiar interface that can scale to protect a deployment of any size. As the service evolves, features like central management will allow you to manage your backup infrastructure from a single location.

Cost effective: Azure Backup pricing includes a per-instance backup management fee and cost of storage (block blob price) consumed on Azure. Unlike other cloud based backup offering, Azure Backup does not charge its customers for any restore operation. Furthermore, customers are not charged for any egress (outbound) data transfer cost during a restore operation.

Randy Downs

Here's the FAQ.

Davis McCarn

Of course there is the problem of not having ultra high speed outbound internet service in which case Mondays backup will finish sometime in July.......
How many Gigs are you backing up and what is your outbound internet speed?

an6543

ASKER

Last backup via Wbadmin transferred almost 550GB (I am not sure if this is before or after data compression). Actual VDSL transfer rate is approximately 18 Mbit/s (capacity 50Mbit/s). Even if the entire bandwidth were available for upload, my calculations are that it would take 344 hours to complete the backup. If download is 5x faster than upload, then it would take 1.720 hours to complete.

That brings me to the second question - is cloud backup over VDSL even a consideration here? Or is this technology only suited for those with very high speed internet access, or with a very limited amount of data that needs to be backed up regularly? Maybe these companies have certain storage-intensive applications (ie. Microsoft Exchange) already running in a cloud environment, which would reduce the amount of backup data being transferred.

SOLUTION