Forum Discussion

abbott_m's avatar
abbott_m
Level 3
16 years ago
Solved

Windows Home Server backup

I've got a WHS setup with quite a bit of storage.  I've been messing with Backup Exec on a seperate server but the licencing for that server along with an agent would get rather expensive quick.  I'm wondering if I move the LTO tape drive to the WHS server and purchase the Backup Exec SBS version, it'd work for that one server.  I'm not terribly concerned about being able to rebuild the server from tape, rather I want to ensure that all my data in the 6tb data section of the WHS setup is properly backed up in the event of a drive failure.

The regular backup exec on the seperate server works just fine so just needing to know if the SBS version will install and function on the WHS server (it's basically just Windows 2003 anyway without Active Directory and a few addons.

Mike
12.x and Earlier
Backup and Recovery
Backup Exec
Installing
Licensing
  • Hemant_Jain's avatar
    Hemant_Jain
    16 years ago
    Base license of BE would give you the ability to backup local machine file system. So, if all you want to do is backup local files/folders and system state of the machine, base license of backup Exec is what you need. But, please be aware that as this server is not supported officially by Symantec, there can be support issues later. If it works, you may go ahead.

    Please mark it a solution, if this was useful.

    Thanks
  • Hemant_Jain's avatar
    Hemant_Jain
    Level 6
    16 years ago

    BE SBS edition license would work only on WIndows 2003 SBS edition of windows. For any other  edition of Windows, you would require a standard BE license.

    Please mark it a solution, if this is useful.
    Thanks

  • Colin_Weaver's avatar
    Colin_Weaver
    Moderator
    16 years ago
    When you try and use the license key for the SBS version of Backup Exec, it checks for an SBS server, if it is not an SBS server the license will not be accepted...

    As such I doubt it will work.
  • abbott_m's avatar
    abbott_m
    Level 3
    16 years ago
    So does that mean that I need a license for the backup exec for windows servers (1 agent).  Is that all I'd need.  I'm somewhat confused as to the licensing model as it relates to the media server if the media server is the actual machine that's getting backed up.
  • Hemant_Jain's avatar
    Hemant_Jain
    Level 6
    16 years ago
    Also, please check the software compatibility list before trying to install Backup Exec on this server. Windows Home server is not supported by Backup Exec 12.x.

    Thanks
  • abbott_m's avatar
    abbott_m
    Level 3
    16 years ago
    to be honest, I'm stuck with either using backup exec or falling back to ntbackup (and I despise that).  right now with the media server on a seperate machine and the agent installed on the WHS system, it works decently (although it took a bit of work to actually get the agent to be able to access the data store).
  • Hemant_Jain's avatar
    Hemant_Jain
    Level 6
    16 years ago
    I would definitely not suggest installing BE on this version of Windows as this is not in the compatibility list. But, you can still give it a try, but you will have to use the standard license and not SBS. You can also try a 60 days evaluation and verify if it works for you.

    Thanks
  • abbott_m's avatar
    abbott_m
    Level 3
    16 years ago
    Installing WHS on a test server and will try BE on that system before screwing with my "production" server.  I'll let you know how it functions (or doesn't)

    Mike
  • abbott_m's avatar
    abbott_m
    Level 3
    16 years ago
    so, I've done my testing on the WHS server and it does what I want.  I ran a license scan on it and it came up with 0 licenses used for all items in the list.  Does this mean I just need to purchase a basic license for BE for Windows Servers and I'm good?

    As an asside, there are a few tricks to getting it to backup the files on the system in the WHS distributed FS environment but the data is there.  Restoring takes a bit of forethought but it functions decently as is.

    Mike
  • Hemant_Jain's avatar
    Hemant_Jain
    Level 6
    16 years ago
    Base license of BE would give you the ability to backup local machine file system. So, if all you want to do is backup local files/folders and system state of the machine, base license of backup Exec is what you need. But, please be aware that as this server is not supported officially by Symantec, there can be support issues later. If it works, you may go ahead.

    Please mark it a solution, if this was useful.

    Thanks
  • Boetsch's avatar
    Boetsch
    16 years ago
    I find it frustrating (as many of you do) that I have to manually start the Backup process of to my Servers Backup drive, and decided to see how easy it would be to automate this task.What I now have is a working, automated Server Backup using a free, open-source utility called Magic Backup.
    If you download, and then install this on your server in an RDP session, you can then either record your own macro using the built in Macro Recorder or use the one below (save it as a text file with a .ahk extension). This should be good for most user.http://www.magicbackup.com/