Need Basic Advise For Setting up Removable Hard Drive Backup with Bk Exec 2012

[Meenduser]

I have 2 servers. I have Bk Up Exec 2010 [planning to upgrade to 2012] and a windows agent. Currently backing up to 400 GB tape drive.

Please help answer the following questions: 

Server 1 has 400 GB hard and server 2 has 400 GB allocated. I want to do daily backup to an external hard drive, so I can take it home instead of taking home a tape each day. All I really need is the ability to reinstall the server and all the files in case of disaster. 

1) So what capacity and what kind of external hard drive do I need? [Assuming that this will be a USB connect]. 

2) 2012 Bk Exec will back up the two servers as two separate jobs, so will I be able to back up the images to one hard drive, if so how much capacity hard drive do I need for 2 X 400 GB hard drive capacity servers which probably have 200 GB or less of data each]

3) Since my real need is to only recreate the whole server if there is disaster, is my current software okay, as in Bk Exec 2012 ro do I need System recovery? 

Hope I make sense. This is a very basic question hope you can give me an idea how many hard drives I will need for Monday to Friday back up, so I can take the hard drive home each day.

Thanks for now.

[MusSeth]

Hello Meenduser,

1) So what capacity and what kind of external hard drive do I need? [Assuming that this will be a USB connect].

backup exec will not let you overwrite backup set if it is the only backup, hence let say if you are doing a full backup on daily basis and data being backed up is 200 GB than you would need atleast 500 GB harddrive so as it will keep one set at a time,

2) 2012 Bk Exec will back up the two servers as two separate jobs, so will I be able to back up the images to one hard drive, if so how much capacity hard drive do I need for 2 X 400 GB hard drive capacity servers which probably have 200 GB or less of data each]

yes you will be able to backup two servers in two seprate jobs to same disk however it needs to have sufficient disk, if data from two servers is approximately 400 GB would suggest you to have a hard disk of bit more size, (500GB)

3) Since my real need is to only recreate the whole server if there is disaster, is my current software okay, as in Bk Exec 2012 ro do I need System recovery?

yes your current software is OK dont need to buy new BESR license or software.

hope this answers your question

[pkh]

At any one time, at the minimum, you would have 2 backup sets on your disk.  You said that your 2 servers have about 200GB of data.  Hence you need at least 800GB (= 2 x 2 servers x 200GB) of space on your disk.  If you are thinking of retaining more backup sets, you would need more space.

If you are thinking of rotating your disks, see my article below

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/articles/how-rotate-external-harddisks-be-2012

[Meenduser]

Thank you so much. So I am planning to get 5, 1 TB external hard drives and will use it for M to F. To get the full image of the server to recreate the server in case of disaster do I copy c and d drives or is there any other way I need to correctly set it up so I can revive the server on a dissimilar machine? 

Any recommendations on external hard drives as well.

Thanks.

[pkh]

If you want to recover your entire machine, then you need to backup everything.  When you do the selection, make sure that the SDR light is green.

[Meenduser]

I have another question. Will I be able to make 5 folders in the hard drive, one for each day of the wekk from Monday to Friday and back up each day of the week to the folder [allow over write once a week]?

If I want to set it up this way and my current data is :

Server 1 - Allocated: 340 GB, used 150 GB.

Server 2: Allocated: 370 GB, used 70GB.

How big a hard drive will I need? 

Thanks.

[Colin_Weaver]

BE 2012 only allows only allows one disk storage backup device per volume, as such no you won't be able to have different folders on the same hard drive.

BE 2010 R3 and earlier did allow it, however as you are considering going to BE 2012, I would not bother setting such a scheme up as it will add to the complexity of the upgrade.