[2k8r2] Windows Server Backup or 3rd party (or both) ?

[atomicrabbit]

Hey guys, I set up a domain controller in Windows Server 2008 R2 in an old computer that I'm fooling around with at home. Long story short, after some time, the motherboard fried and I couldn't put the HDD into another box because it wouldn't start the OS because of different hardware.

I didn't have a secondary DC and didn't have any useful backups, although the HDD was in perfect running condition. Eventually I was able to boot up the OS in vmware directly from the HDD then create a secondary DC on a new physical machine, promote it to the primary, then demote the old primary DC. This was a long, tedius process and was wondering what the best practices are for backing up servers and domain controllers.

I know 2k8 R2 has Windows Server Backup, but I've also heard some good things about 3rd party solutions like Acronis or EaseUS. Is there an easier way to backup a domain controller in the event of a hardware failure (hdd or otherwise)?

Aside from having a secondary DC, what is the best solution for backing up DCs?

[ToneKnee]

My setup is basically a Microsoft Hyper-V server and it serves:

Windows 2008 R2 Enterprise edition

Windows 2008 R2 Standard edition (minimal install which acts as a secondary DC/Back up)

Windows 7 for doing dev stuff and work.

And the easiest solution would be to keep active back ups of the VHD files.

Depending how old the computer is and if it has a processor that has hardware virtual processor support and if you have enough memory (4GB might be enough). You could just run a config like mine, minus the Windows 7 dev environment.

[spUrr]

A RAID solution involving mirroring should be near the top of the list. Of course keep in mind what scenario the DC will be used in.. how many clients involved etc.

[ITOps]

I would recommend getting Acronis with the plugins (Universal Restore and De-duplication) and automate the backup and validations of those backups. Then make sure you store them on a NAS or SAN and offline/offsite. This would in a really bad situation allow you to recover to new hardware by being able to do a bare metal restore, or recover only what you need from the partitions to the actual files if needed. The best thing is you can encrypt the backups and have them stored wherever you want without worrying about your disk be damaged over time with products like Ghost.

[The_Observer]

My setup is basically a Microsoft Hyper-V server and it serves:

Windows 2008 R2 Enterprise edition

Windows 2008 R2 Standard edition (minimal install which acts as a secondary DC/Back up)

Windows 7 for doing dev stuff and work.

And the easiest solution would be to keep active back ups of the VHD files.

Depending how old the computer is and if it has a processor that has hardware virtual processor support and if you have enough memory (4GB might be enough). You could just run a config like mine, minus the Windows 7 dev environment.

Nice was looking at this setup also. Will be looking into this more!

[spUrr]

And with a mirror of course it's just a matter of putting the mirror in a new box, resetting the HAL and you're back up and running.

[majortom1981]

Use both. I use windows server backup on the domain controllers and symantec backup exec. you can never have too many backups.besides if you have a hyper-v cluster backup exec does not back it up.

[ceminess]

I would recommend getting Acronis with the plugins (Universal Restore and De-duplication) and automate the backup and validations of those backups. Then make sure you store them on a NAS or SAN and offline/offsite. This would in a really bad situation allow you to recover to new hardware by being able to do a bare metal restore, or recover only what you need from the partitions to the actual files if needed. The best thing is you can encrypt the backups and have them stored wherever you want without worrying about your disk be damaged over time with products like Ghost.

This is exactly what I was going to say. If it is just a domain controller and not an exchange server then acronis is the perfect choice.

However, if you plan on making it an exchange 2010 server in the future, invest in a different solution, like, backup exec. Because acronis does not support exchange 2010.

[atomicrabbit]

I would recommend getting Acronis with the plugins (Universal Restore and De-duplication) and automate the backup and validations of those backups. Then make sure you store them on a NAS or SAN and offline/offsite. This would in a really bad situation allow you to recover to new hardware by being able to do a bare metal restore, or recover only what you need from the partitions to the actual files if needed. The best thing is you can encrypt the backups and have them stored wherever you want without worrying about your disk be damaged over time with products like Ghost.

Ok so here's my dilemma. Either I didn't perform the backups or recoveries properly or Acronis Universal Restore does not work the way I expect it to. I didn't have any backups of the DC before the motherboard crash, but after the crash, I put the harddrive into another computer and booted the computer off an Acronis Boot CD to back up the OS partition in hopes that I could use the Universal Restore to restore it so it could be used in the new tower. But it didn't work. This was a while ago, so I can't quote the exact steps I took, but I racked my brains trying a lot of different ways to recover the OS partition to different hardware.

I'm not sure if it made a difference but the old (dead) computer was a dell optiplex and the new computer is a dell vostro, which is a workstation PC, so there are no drivers specifically for windows server OSs, but the win7 64bit drivers work fine for the chipset on server 2008 r2. Either way, i tried a lot of different things and could not, for the life of me, get acronis to restore the backups to the different hardware.

My setup is basically a Microsoft Hyper-V server and it serves:

Windows 2008 R2 Enterprise edition

Windows 2008 R2 Standard edition (minimal install which acts as a secondary DC/Back up)

Windows 7 for doing dev stuff and work.

And the easiest solution would be to keep active back ups of the VHD files.

Depending how old the computer is and if it has a processor that has hardware virtual processor support and if you have enough memory (4GB might be enough). You could just run a config like mine, minus the Windows 7 dev environment.

I've never used Hyper-V before (or heard of it for that matter). I was doing some quick reading about it -- so essentially, its a role that you install on server 2008 r2 that allows you to run virtual DCs? Then you just keep backups of the VMs? This sounds interesting.

[ITOps]

When you run the backup for the first time try doing it from inside the operating system to check for issues, I've had no problems doing backups from the bootcd or inside the operating system. I would recommend backing up the entire disk as at times Windows installs extra on other partitions (you will notice this if there is a small amount of MBs being used up after installation, without backing up this partition normally a FAT32 partition then the system will not boot from restore but still allow you to restore files from within Acronis while booted into the operating system).

[ToneKnee]

I've never used Hyper-V before (or heard of it for that matter). I was doing some quick reading about it -- so essentially, its a role that you install on server 2008 r2 that allows you to run virtual DCs? Then you just keep backups of the VMs? This sounds interesting.

Not exactly. Yes, Hyper-V can be installed as a role, but you can also download Hyper-V server edition which is basically a very basic install with Hyper-V which you then manage from either that computer or another and you can add VM's to it and manage them remotely. This is a good solution as if you back up the VHD's and the Hyper-V server goes down, you can transfer them to another Hyper-V server without risk of installing or damaging the DC environment. Or if you ever upgraded to another computer, the VM's could be transferred to the new computer without much fuss.

Edit: If I remember correctly, Hyper-V server edition is free as well, but I'm not sure if that's changed.

[atomicrabbit]

yep, seems like it's free: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/hyper-v-server/default.aspx

This seems like a much better solution. So do I have to use VMware or does MS have it's own virtualization software?

Would it be easy to back up the current server 2008 R2 installation and restore it to a VHD inside hyper-v?

[Raileely]

What a surprise that you mentioned easeus. I notice it when just fooling around the Download.cnet and wanna find me one remarkable backup software. After reviewing what others say about it. I decide to download its free version for a try.

So amazed to find it provides so many backup functions i need, like system backup, disk/partition backup,schedule backup as well as incremental/differential. Disk clone successfully help me to upgrade my older and small disk to a larger and brand-new hard disk. I like.

Therefore, I think its server version also would be awesome two. And i know that windows server backup in w2k8 is able to backup data. But it might be much better to use one really professional. What's more, I just received its email, saying now it has made another upgrade - new interface as well as more improved functions. You might go to its website: http://www.todo-backup.com

Thanks!

[+Spark99 Subscriber²]

A RAID setup helps to protect you from Hard Drive Failure, but is completely useless if something goes horribly wrong inside the OS (won't boot or corrupted/deleted data).

You need restore points to go back in time to restore the OS or retrieve individual files.

I am running a VMware vSphere 5.0 High Availability Cluster (SAN) at Work with Veeam Backup & Replication 6.0 backing up to our Main PC (Windows Server 2008 R2). SugarSync Online Backup uploads the Incremental Restore Points offsite (in case of a Catastrophic Failure).

Overkill for most users (also, kinda pricey), but I am loving it...