For those looking for an open source backup solution, I recommend
bacula. It's a network based backup program, handles backup to most storage devices (tape/cd/dvd/file), has autoloader support, data encryption, and offers incremental/full backups. If you have several systems to backup, and you are looking for a centralized backup service similar to enterprise backup software, bacula may be worth a look.
We have our windows workstations running the bacula client and backing up to tape via the bacula service running on a freebsd server.
Joined on 12-22-2005
TechSoup Member
We are beginning to use backuppc: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/
which I am very happy with. I have aa modicum of linux experience, and their mailing list is at about 2 enquiries a day, with about 10 responses to each query - basically until either the poster has solved the problem, or the bug has been fixed. I like the vibrancy of the community and the ease of set up. Plus, it has awesome compression and filing techniques that can save heaps of space.
Joined on 11-22-2005
TechSoup Member
You might consider EasyFileSave from http://www.easyfilesave.com. The backup occurs at night and requires no human intervention. It goes to an offsite secure data center so we don't have to worry about tape storage. It is very easy to use and since we set it and forget it we don't have to worry about someone actually having to do the backups anymore. One downside to it is that it can only handle up to 10GBs of data but that is more than enough for most. Click the grey bars on the left side of the website to download the applet that runs on your machine. I think it costs about $25 a month for the PCs and $45 a month to backup the servers.
Joined on 12-29-2005
TechSoup Member
Other than backup exec, what else are people using to do backups? Doing it by hand using ntbackup is no fun...
We use BackupAssist for our tape backups - it's
a lot cheaper than Backup Exec, but I'm not sure how it compares to some of the others mentioned here. It does do automatic scheduling, notification, remote backups, open files and the like though.
They have a free trial at www.backupassist.com, but I'd suggest testing it to make sure it meets your needs before buying.
I am currently looking for a backup solution for a medium-sized npo that supports exchange, SQL, and regular ol' file backups. It's nice that TechSoup offers the Symantec backup, but its seems SQL and Exchange support are an addition $1k each on top of the $59 administrative fee. Kind of cost prohibitive. I wasn't finding many solutions I like, until this thread.
cfapress's batch script is simple, straight-forward and looks like it'd do a clean job on an overnight backup routine. And the only cost is a few hours of tweaking the code to suit my TBU and to add in script to turn the Exchange services on and off. I want to say thanks to cfapress.
Now wish me luck with the coding. :)
Hi,
In case some of you may not know, Symantec has begun offering Backup Exec (formerly by Veritas) through its donation program on Techsoup Stock. You can find more information at the pages below:
Backup Exec 10d with CPS for Windows Servers
Backup Exec 9.2 for NetWare Servers
Clement
Joined on 01-13-2004
TechSoup Member
Is this no longer offered by Techsoup?
If not, why? Too many problems? Looking through the forum I see where people were having problems with it only being a 60-day trial version and Techsoup was looking for a solution.
Did Techsoup stop carrying Symantec corporate/enterprise edition software altogether? Seemed like another issue with Symantec was a very buggy Corporate Antivirus v.10.
Joined on 06-04-2001
TechSoup Member
Stephen
In my "day job". We use Backup Exec for our non mission critical servers. IBM TSM for the mission critical stuff.
The best advice I can give you is to back up the Backup Exec (BE)database frequently on the server and off to another server and then to tape.
Not sure which level of the MS DB it is. MDB, MDE or SQL Server. We have very few failures with MS databases, yet for some reason most of our calls to Backup Exec Support have resulted in restoration of the BE databases. Errant users and applications cause most damage to databases, so this may be the reason for the restores.
Joined on 04-19-2007
TechSoup Member
I work for a NP and we are/or were using NT backup that came with Windows but we were told that it was not reliable to continue to use. There are only 3 people in our office that would need to back up daily. One of the local companies is recommending Yosemite Backup Single Sever Edition which is quite pricey. Would anyone have any other recommendations? I have seen the posts about the Web sites for backing up but that is not what they want to do.
How much is too much for the Yosemite?
You can get the Backup Exec 11D w/1 year 24x7 Essential support for $409 per license. Not bad compared to what corporate users have to pay. Not sure if techsoup has the new Backup Exec since Veritas was bought out by Symantec but it would be even cheaper through their donation program if/when it is available.
Joined on 06-09-2003
Davenport, Iowa USA
Yosemite does have NP pricing, call them directly to get started. the also have excellent phone support, and have gotten me through a couple of configuration issues just fine.
Dave
Joined on 04-25-2003
TechSoup Member
I'd like to use Windows Backup to do daily backup of files on laptops. I've tested restoring individual files from the PC that made the backup and that seems to work fine. Questions is if I have a hard drive failure, how do I restore to another computer?
Joined on 06-09-2003
Davenport, Iowa USA
The way you use to restore to a new hard drive after a major crash (this was with NT backup) would be to install windows into a different directory like C:\wntmp instead of C:\winnt
you would install just enough of the operating system so your backup media reader would work (tape drive drivers)
You would then run NTbackup to restore all files and directories.
After all the files were restroed, you would edit the boot files to point to the winnt directory for the system directory.
You would reboot the server and then delete the c:\wntmp directory
As this point another reboot should have a recovered system as of the last full backup,
Lastly you would have to restore from any incremental tapes to get you to the current backup.
I don't know how much has changed since the NT days and would personally use a disk imaging product like acronis true image to have full offline backups of the whole hard drive.
Dave