2008 backups again-from backup forum

Yes this has been discussed in another post, but I may as well update what I ended up doing for my companies.

I have Windows 2008 R2 servers installed, and the main data disk is a RAID 3 configuration. I added a SATA 1 TB hard disk to the box, and the backups now “land” on this drive. I gave it a drive letter, despite the performance warning, and locked it down via NTFS so that only the backup users could read / write to it.

I then installed RSYNC onto the server, and configured it (along with the firewall) to talk to a linux box. After the backups run on Windows, the Linux box makes a rsync call to the windows box, and another 1TB drive syncs with the Windows 2008 R2 1 TB drive, so they have matching copies.

I then attach a USB 1 TB drive to the linux box, and rotate copies so that I have data that leaves the shop on a regular basis. Do not leave your primary and backups at the same location!

Clumsy? Yup. But it works. And restoration of a file(s) is soooo easy. I have had my RAID fail already, and rebuilding it blew it up. Boot from the Windows 2008 R2 DVD. Have any special drivers on a thumb drive. When stable, point to either the labeled hard drive, or the samba-enabled linux box, and my backup image is right there, ready to perform.

Restoring a single file or files is also easy… inside the Server Manager, mount the backup as a VHD. Don’t make it read-only, or it will fail. It comes up with a drive letter. Tunnel down to what you need, and go get it.

Yes, I wish there was a way to manage the backup process more to make a true full / differential backup. But I cannot argue with the benefit of a bare-metal restore.