Media Server - must we have one?

[gpuk]

Hello group.

We have a small sub-office consisting of 1x Windows Server 2003 machine (running Exchange 2003 and Active Directory) and 3x Windows XP desktops.

Currently we have no backup strategy in place (very bad, I know) and we intend to remedey this by implementing a solution based on Backup Exec. The goal will be to have daily backups of all 4 machines and for these to be stored on a local NAS box (via Gig ethernet). In addition, we will also require the ability to bare-metal restore the 2003 server to same or different hardware.

With the above in mind I assume we need the following:
1x Symantec Backup Exec for Windows Servers (to be installed on the existing Windows 2003 server machine?)
1x Symantec Backup Exec for Windows System Recovery Option

My questions are:
1). Am I correct in thinking we can install the main BackupExec application on our existing Windows 2003 server even though we will want to take a daily backup of this machine i.e. it is not necessary to have a seperate "media" server just to run the backups from?
2). What is the benefit of the Symantec Backup Exec Agent for Active Directory? As I understand it, Active Directroy backups can be handled by the standard backup exec application?
3). We plan to buy a Thecus N4100 to act as the NAS server - presumably this should work ok with Backup Exec (the N4100 simply exposes disk storage via SMB)?

Any feedback/advice would be fantastic.

Charlie

Message Edited by gpuk on 04-23-200708:05 AM

Message Edited by gpuk on 04-23-200708:23 AM

[Patty_McGowan]

Hi Charlie,

The media server is only a term for the server that Backup Exec is installed on.

You can backup the media server with itself. 

The benefit you will get from using the Active Directory agent is the ability to restore granular items from AD, meaning if a users permissions were modified, you would be able to restore those back.  With out that agent you can only restore AD. 

The Thecus N4100, I can not say for sure.  Here is a technote that talks about NAS devices with Backup Exec:

http://support.veritas.com/docs/237737

If you UNC to the device by name, there should not be a problem.  Since Symantec does not certify NAS devices I can not be certain that this will work.

Please let me know if I have answered your questions.

Thanks.

Patty

[Joshua_Small]

I would have some general concerns about how the network was built and setup, if you needed complete backups of workstations.

You will find it much more effecient to get all your data placed on server shares (that's what a server's for) and forget about backing up workstations.

Look at it this way, if a workstation dies, you've got to format/reinstall it anyway. You can then either:

- Just start working, because all your data is on the server

or

- Start restoring a backup

It actually makes the process longer. And since a workstation is presumably more likely to lose its data than a server with hard disk redundancy, the problem compounds.

Regarding the Agent For Active Directory, I would generally suggest that for a company the size of your own, it is unnecessary. Yes, System State backups are handled by the ordinary application. Additional granularity orf restore features are provided by the agent however.

What you WILL also need however is one 'Agent for Microsoft Exchange' in order to back it up correctly.

As far as 'bare metal restores' go, do test it extensively. There have been many issues with restore to non-identical hardware.

[gpuk]

Hi Patty,

Thanks for the useful reply and confirming that we can install Backup Exec on to our existing server - I suspected we could but it is nice to have this confirmed. I will have a read of the technote later today.

Charlie

[gpuk]

Hi Joshua,

Thanks for replying.

Actually, we currently do exactly as you suggest i.e. all data is stored on the server and accessed via network shares. For example, each user has their local "My Documents" folder mapped through to a location on the Win2K3 server.

I suppose the only reason we thought it would be useful to backup the workstations is to remove the need in a disaster to manually format and re-install windows and all the various apps (photoshop, corel, ms office etc.) - it seemed like it would be easier to just blanket restore the system from a recent snapshot. A disaster could be e.g. an unidentified virus deleting files or a broken app hosing the registry etc.

Now you have prompted me to think about it in more depth, perhaps a better strategy might be to take ghost images of all the desktops in their current state and use these images to restore them should a disaster occur?

Finally, I have a quick question re: bare metal restore. In the event we have to perform a bare metal restore (e.g. server catches fire or is stolen) we do not have a redundant identical server in stock, therefore, it is guaranteed that we will have to restore on to different hardware. Given your warning, are there any key hardware components that should be kept as similar as possible? Presumably, things like the motherboard and raid card must not differ too severly?

Our existing server is an IBM xSeries 236, as part of implementing this new backup strategy we will be buying a new server to test the BMR procedure. Unfortunately, IBM no longer sell the x236 and their closest current model is either the x3500 or x226. I just hope the BMR procedure will work with this.

Thanks for all the info so far.

Charlie