CASTalk.com

Steve Stewart · Guest

Hi all,

I have a client that has an SBS 2000 that almost experienced a severe crash
with a Raid array and faulty tape backup problem. They don't mind spending
some extra $$ to have a live data backup solution. does anyone have any
experience with the Windows 2003 Storage software? Dell has it bundled in a
pretty neat rack mounted, raid 5, SATA product for around $1700 which is
small beans for this particular client. Any advice, comments, or thoughts? I
was hoping to find out the best way to implement such a solution.

Thanks,

Steve

Pat [MSFT] · Guest

It really depends on how complex you want to go. From the posting it sounds
like they want to leave everything on the SBS box, but have their data
backed up/mirrored to the Win Storage Server2k3 box.

In that case, you have a few options.

You can just drop the box into the environment and use a sheduled robo-copy
to 'mirror' the data over (it supports differential copies, etc.).

You could run the current backup but point it at the WinSS2k3 box (this
would also work for the Exchange data, which the copy method would not).
Then attach the tape system to the WSS2k3 machine and run the offline
backups from there. This would also get them Shadow copy capabilities
(which SBS2k doesn't have, SBS2k3 does though).

Pat

"Steve Stewart" <steve@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:OBJfw2kJEHA.208@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...

Steve Stewart · Guest

Hi Pat,

Well, I was hoping that the Windows Storage Server was going to have some
magic capabilities that would really help me out. I'm running a Poweredge
4400 with the SBS server. I'm considering purchasing this product that runs
the OEM Windows 2003 Storage Server:

http://catalog.us.dell.com/CS1/cs1page2.aspx?br=9&c=us&cs=04&fm=10904&kc=6W463&l=en&s=bsd

Judging from this announcement from Microsoft, it sounds like there may be
more robust features incorporated soon:

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2004/apr04/04-05NewStorageInnovationsPR.asp

For now, if I purchase this product, I could have BackupExec on my SBS run a
back up to disk to the new NAS after the tape job finishes. Does that sound
feasible? This way I'm getting two solid backups with Exchange data and all.
I'm really not too worried about archiving backup data on the NAS device..I
just want a solid secondary backup set in the event that I have another
scenario as described below. Also, with Backup Exec backing up to the NAS,
couldn't I set it to look for changes from the previous day's backup on the
NAS instead of having to overwrite the entire backup job? I would really
like your input on this. I guess the added benefit of having a Windows 2003
NAS as compared to vanilla stand alone device is that I would get Active
Directory replication for emergency purposes as well. For the record, I
don't think there is anything out there that will allow me to replicate the
data perfectly so that the NAS would act as a backup server, correct? NSI's
Double Take is really expensive and I couldn't have 2 SBS machines on the
domain anyway. What do you think? My understanding about Windows Storage
Server 2003 is that it is really just a scaled down version of Windows 2003
Server that has a kernel that will only allow certain applications to run,
like backup and antivirus. Thanks for your input again.

Steve

"Pat [MSFT]" <patfilot@online.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:%23J9Qa2uJEHA.3980@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...

Pat [MSFT] · Guest

The Backup Exec-->NAS should work fine. There are a variety of migration
tools around for integrating into the environment, but I think that they may
be overkill in the SBS workspace. Usually the problem is how do you migrate
users from the server that they are on to the WSS server without having to
manually change everything (the answer is DFS). But I think bang for the
buck, your plan is the way to go.

(I work for MS so I have a vested interest here...)
For a bit more, they could also go to SBS2k3 which would get them VSS on the
SBS machine and Backup Exec would leverage that. It would also get them the
enhanced AD and My Documents re-direction capabilities (requires DFS).
Re-direct their files to the WSS machine and allow it to handle the VSS
duties for their daily files. Backup the Exchange data to the NAS (using
Backup Exec) and a separate backup for the file data. If their org grows,
they should be able to leverage the WSS machine in more ways (e.g. it
doesn't have a 25 user cap the way SBS does).

That would also get them Exchange 2k3 which supports RPC over HTTP (requires
Outlook 2k3, but makes remote access way better) and a much, much better OWA
experience.

I'm not sure what the SBS upgrade cost is, but it may be worth checking out.

Pat

"Steve Stewart" <steve@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:OpXX$1wJEHA.3404@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...

Using 2003 storage server to back up 2000 Small Business Ser

	CASTalk.com Forum Index -> Storage System	All times are GMT
Page 1 of 1