Forum Discussion

Rdave's avatar
Rdave
Level 3
15 years ago

ASR backup

 Hello.
I recently had to restore a server with a crashed raid5 array from backups completely. I did not have an ASR backup on hands, so I just installed os, then Backup Exec agent, then restored c: drive completely, then rebooted, etc.. It worked. Server is restored.
The question is: if I had an ASR backup, I would still be restoring by Backup Exec backup over the ASR backup eventually? ASR backup only restores parts of your files, so one will still be restoring regular backup after restoring using ASR set. Do I really need ASR backups then? They add an extra routine to already complicated backup schedules. Does it pay at the end to have ASR backups of every server in your possession?
What do you think?

Dave
  •  I don't bother because I don't feel the benefits of ASR outweigh the effort involved. BE's IDR option is integrated with ASR, but again, IDR can be problematic.

    Lyon
  •  I don't bother because I don't feel the benefits of ASR outweigh the effort involved. BE's IDR option is integrated with ASR, but again, IDR can be problematic.

    Lyon
  • Hi Dave,

    I normally only backup files, Exchange, SQL, and System State. I've never bothered to backup installation directories. You can, but my thinking is always along the lines of possible corruption with the folders and files, and that would be introduced again when they're restored.
    I have successfully restored an Exchange server to working order, along with all the file shares. That was restoring Exchange to a B2D folder and then using Exchange disaster recovery to bring it online; restoring the files to the locations created (restored file shares and all permissions), and the System State of the server.
    The other thing is space...backing up each server completely would mean using multiple tapes...it's a bit of a grey area. Some people would recommend backing up everything and having an ASR backup of every server...others would say no.
    What does  your policy dictate?

    Laters!