Jump to content

Some IT backup advice (sbs)


MrLizard

Recommended Posts

Hi all,

 

i know there are some geeks out there and i was wondering if i could pick your brains for a minute.

 

I have two servers, both running server 2008 Hyper-v

 

Server 1 has server 2008 as host environment and sbs2008 & Server 2003 in two virtual instances

Server 2 has Server 2008 as the host environment running hyper-v with one 2008 server running Terminal services on it

 

I need a backup strategy for this, i have a budget of around £2k, what I would like to acheive is a system where if one of the host machines were to fail i could bring it back quickly onto the other server machine.

 

Both servers are specced with the fact that either one could potentially run all 3 servers at once, both servers hardware are exactly the same and have been specced with hyper-v in mind, both on 64bit.

 

So far i have looked at acronis, which for £1k will give me the ability to backup files or images of one host machine and all 3 virtual machines, potentially sending the images to the opposite machine, sounds great.

 

So really im wondering if anyone has done this before, and if whether im making this more complicated than it needs to be...

 

Can i just simply copy the .vhd files and snapshot images from one machine to the next, is there a way of importing in hyper-v like there used to be in vmware.

 

ive been trying to get in touch with symantec backup exec to see if they do anything similar but their support is useless.

 

Ta

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Answer from one of the guys that I thought did it :wacko: , just waiting for one of the others to come back to me!

 

"Hmm, I don't do much with backup personally, but Backup Exec should do the job but I have no idea on cost.

 

You can export and import virtual machines in hyper-v, quick google for "hyper-v import virtual machine" reveals lots of help such as http://blogs.msdn.com/virtual_pc_guy/ar ... art-1.aspx

 

As an interim (if he has enough space on the servers) it may be possible to periodically export from one server to the other so that the files are available in case of a physical server failure."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi m8,

 

From what i can gather, you can simply backup the virtual server file located on the host server. then restore it to another host server if required. We use Arcserve and simply backup these files daily. But backup exec should work just as well.

 

Hope thats clear

Link to comment
Share on other sites

yes this all makes sense, im still researching but an assortment of the above seems to make sense.

 

acronis offers a nice additional feature that will let you manage the whole process as well as restoring individual files from the virtual instances from the host server, but you do pay for it....

 

testing should be happening tomorrow.

 

ta

Steve

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Haven't seen the Microsoft effort in action, but I assume it must have some kind of snapshot functionality? We use vRanger which essentially takes a snapshot, compresses it and pops it to an attached drive. Can do all this via script tbh, so don't discount the cost saving of a 2tb drive or somesuch and a little scheduled task. :thumbs:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Advise against tape backup - its not reliable and relies on human intervention (do you really want to trust your data to a glorified VCR - the technology is 10 years out of date)

 

Either get a nearline backup device like a SonicWall CDP (continuous data protection) or go for an online/offsite solution (charged at approx £1.50/gb/month - PDF here http://www.crosstek.it/pdfs/datasentry.pdf

 

If however you need true failover, the best product on the market is 'Double Take' - but this will be well over your budget! http://www.doubletake.com/uk/products/d ... cture.aspx

 

I sell all these solutions if interested :thumbs:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...