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CFSNMFG
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13 years ago
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'Related Drives' Question

Question relates more to our DC and SQL servers at this time - but any light you can shed on the topic is appreciated. Servers are split into at least 2 physical drives - OS and Data - sometimes a 3rd physical drive.  Creating a backup job generates the screen where "related drives" are strongly suggested to be within the same job.

 

How critical is having all related drives on the same job? Our desire is to backup the data drives more frequently than the OS for example - saves space I suppose - but if things aren't going to run smoothly on a future recovery then there's no point in not including related drives.

 

The Symantec white paper on Best Practices for Domain Controller backups does seem to indicate this is pretty important stuff...so I'd like to get it right. Thanks!

  • is the 'related drives' alert triggered by something SSR actually recognizes as critical - or is it triggered simply because there are multiple drives/partitions present?

    The first bit. You wont see this prompt just because you have multiple partitions. In general, if you get the prompt, it is highly recommended that you go with it and include those drives.

    If you choose not to, you really should test your restore as early as possible.

  • The related drives is typically recommended when something is critical to get the server backup up and running. Some examples:

    1. When backing up a 2008 R2 server, you must include the system reserved partition
    2. When backing up a DC, you must include the partition where the AD files are (if not on the system partition)

    As always, test the restore to confirm it works before you need to restore in a 'disaster' situation.

    Hope that helps.

  • Thanks Chris - it's not always a simple endeavor to know if something is critical or not (so I get the test concept loud and clear) - is the 'related drives' alert triggered by something SSR actually recognizes as critical - or is it triggered simply because there are multiple drives/partitions present?

    We're running 2008R2 servers with a mix of Win7 thrown in for fun btw.

     

    Thanks again.

     

  • is the 'related drives' alert triggered by something SSR actually recognizes as critical - or is it triggered simply because there are multiple drives/partitions present?

    The first bit. You wont see this prompt just because you have multiple partitions. In general, if you get the prompt, it is highly recommended that you go with it and include those drives.

    If you choose not to, you really should test your restore as early as possible.