Best Backup/Imaging solution for my small SBS 2003 Network

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I am looking for a good imaging and backup solution for my small network. I have read a whole bunch about different options but am still unsure which route to take and what might be best for me.

Here is my setup:

I have nine (9) Windows XP workstations;
I have one (1) Dell SC430 Server running SBS 2003 R2. The server has 4GB Ram, a HP DAT 72 tape backup, and two SATA 250GB drives mirrored with RAID1 directly from the motherboard.

I recently had a system crash and found out, the hard way, that the mirrored drive is actually not mirrored. I couldn't just boot from the second drive and get up and running. There were all kinds of problems with the BOOT.INI and the mirrored drive would not just boot the system. No matter now, it finally got fixed and I am up and running. So, basically, the mirroring did not work as anticipated and as described to me. Resulting in this post. This is what I would like to do...I just don't know how to do it:

1) I want a TRUE mirror so that if my primary hard drive fails, I merely have to change cables to the backup drive and keep working. I don't know if this is done via a bootable image or some other method...but that's why I'm asking.

2) I want to be able to backup my data to the tape drive, a removable hard drive, or via the internet (i.e. to an ftp location) so my data is automatically backed up nightly. I am concerned about using a removeable hard drive (ala Western Digital Passport) because my staff would have to "eject" the drive before removing it...unless you can just remove external USB drives without "removing" them first.

3) I would like to, ideally, create images of each workstation so if that workstation fails I can pop in a new hard drive, restore the image, and the workstation will boot and work exactly as before. Again, ideally, this would take place over the network, but to a removable hard drive would be fine as well. The workstations don't generally hold any data as that is all kept on the server.

- What is the proper Acronis version(s) that I would use?

- How would I implement the scheme detailed above?

- I really don't want to implement a bunch of new hardware, I would like to use what I have or just purchase some basic drives. I don't want to go with a RAID5 setup where I have to purchase a new SCSI card and an external disk array.

- Is there a problem using external USB disks for the backup/image? (i.e. ejecting or removing the drive before unplugging the USB cable?

- The goal is to create a system that would not only backup my data, but will allow me to simply plug in a drive and be EXACTLY where I was before the failure. The SBS mirroring does not do that.

Thanks for reading the long post.

Di, 10/27/2009 - 15:45
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Hello Dario,

Thank you for using [[http://www.acronis.com/enterprise/ | Acronis Corporate Products]]

I will answer your questions one--by-one. Please see the information below.

I want a TRUE mirror so that if my primary hard drive fails, I merely have to change cables to the backup drive and keep working. I don't know if this is done via a bootable image or some othermethod...but that's why I'm asking.

Acronis software doesn't create a bootable image. If you create a backup image of the source system, in the case of system failure you should perform a recovery of the image using, for example, Acronis Bootable Rescue Media that is considered to be an alternate version of the program burned onto a CD disk.  the recovered system will be bootable, but the recovery operation takes some time. 

Also our program has a Clone feature (please see this article to understand the difference). This option is closer to the current needs, but you are unable to clone a RAID array, this option works only if you want to transfer the system to the same hardware, i.e. you should clone a single hard drive to another hard drive, cloning a raid array to a single hard drive is impossible. 
I want to be able to backup my data to the tape drive, a removable hard drive, or via the internet (i.e. to an ftp location) so my data is automatically backed up nightly. I am concerned about using a removeable hard drive (ala Western Digital Passport) because my staff would have to "eject" the drive before removing it...unless you can just remove external USB drives without "removing" them first.

Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Advanced Server SBS Edition will satisfy your needs. The program recognizes all hard disk drives connected to the PC, along with a wide variety of removable media drives with P-ATA (IDE), S-ATA, SCSI, USB, IEEE1394 (Firewire) and PCMCIA interfaces including: CD-ROM / DVD-ROM and CD-R(W) recorders and burners, tape drives, RDX drives, NAS drives and many others.  You are able to place the backups to a network share via LAN or using an FTP server.

I would like to, ideally, create images of each workstation so if that workstation fails I can pop in a new hard drive, restore the image, and the workstation will boot and work exactly as before. Again, ideally, this would take place over the network, but to a removable hard drive would be fine as well. The workstations don't generally hold any data as that is all kept on the server.

You should use Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Advanced Workstation for your purposes. Acronis Backup & Recovery 10.0 Advanced Workstation simplifies and automates backup and restore processes, while giving an adminstrator the abililty ot remotely monitor and manage remote machines from a single console. You are able to store the archives via network or onto a external hard drive.

So, to obtain the desired functionality you should have: 

1) 1 license of Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Advanced Server SBS Edition;

2) 9 licenses of  Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Advanced Workstation.

You should use Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Advanced Server SBS Edition to backup your Dell SC430 Server. You can place the archives to any device you have for now, you don't need any additional hardware.

You should use Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Advanced Workstation to backup Windows XP workstations. You can also use the current devices to place the archives to, you can also store the archives to your Dell SC430Server.

Please see the respective User guides available on our web site here.

I may recommend you to install the trial versions  in order to make sure that the programs run flawless for you.

Please do not hesitate to ask additional questions if the provided information is not clear or you need a further assistance. 

Thank you.

Mo, 11/09/2009 - 12:18
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