Backup for Windows 2003 Servers

Flashster · 26th May 2006

Background:
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I am setting up (or will be soon) a colo w2k3 server mainly for hosting web sites I design for my clients (small businesses). The clients will only have 'write' access to the server by way of the content managment system I integrate with their web site.

I will only have 1-2u of space (i.e. 1 server which I've yet to build), 1 power socket, and a small number of IP addresses. I am familiar with w2k server, but have yet to get my hands on w2k3, hence some of my questions below.

I think it would be useful to be able to a limited number of pop mail accounts with my web offering - say 10-15 pop addresses per domain.

I intend to have two servers - one I'll keep off site to swap out if the live one develops a fault. I need to be able to backup the live one and copy the web/mail side of things (or even the whole disk image, but not sure how Microsoft license activation will deal with that) to the new server from the backup.

My backup questions are:
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i) what do you back up to? do you using disk mirroring in addition, or utilise both hard disks as usable space and back up to something else? I will have very limited space at the datacentre (1-2u) so limited options outside the server unless the colo company allow me to plug in a 1u external hard drive....which I doubt.

ii) What software do you use? Windows backup and DriveSnapShot have been suggested so far. I don't want to be message about with custom scripts or programming if at all possible.

Any advice much appreciated.

Flash

dch · 26th May 2006

With DriveSnapShot - you would still need to get involved in some scripting if you wanted automated backups - so that may rule it out for you.

I'm not sure if Windows Backups uses volume shadow or not by default, but again if I suppose you could script it to if needed.

backup-for-workgroups.com may be good as it can automatically backup and can use volume shadow too - Like I said before I've not used this, but others on this board have said it is good - you can probably get it (and lot more) from http://www.servertastic.com/store/

If you had 3 HDDs in your 1U server you can still have RAID1 over two and use the third HDD for backups etc.

CSN-Carl · 10th July 2006

We use BFW (Backup for Workgroups) no problems as of yet..

internetod · 11th July 2006

Hi There Flashter,
For our Windows Web Server we use Acronis TrueImage Server on a Daily Schedule. This provides a live image of the server so in the event of failure we have an image to restore to. We backup over the network to a NAS and this works fine for us. There is also an option for a plugin so you can restore the image to a server of different hardware without issue or re-install.

Its a few hundred per server but certainly wort taking a look to do it right.

If you're going to be hosting several sites on a 2K3 Platform and you are not yet familiar with 2K3 or IIS6, it may be worth considering a Control Panel such as PLESK or HELM that will take the administration and labour away from you. You can either buy or lease these depending on your budget and needs.

These systems work with Free Mail Servers as standard to keep costs down.

fusion · 11th July 2006

Another one for Acronis.. seems to the job quite well from my usage recently on a small number of machines.

As for HELM - its quite reasonably priced for those looking to host under a smaller number of domains such as 20 and 100. Look for helm lite licenses.. considerably reduced in cost, with the same functionality as the big daddy licenses. Just aimed at the single server mind