Which product to buy - Help required!

[Moggyman]

Hi

I'm currently using BExec 11d to backup plain data, a remote Exchange 2003 server and a remote SQL server.  The backups go either to tape or to an iSCSI volume mapped as a local drive to the backup server to enable granular Exchange backup/restore.

As more options get added and new products appear the more confused I get as to which upgrade product to buy to suit my needs - a lot of what's on offer seems like overkill for my small company with it's 4 main servers!!  Please excuse my ignorance of all things 'backup' as I'm a relative novice in this field.

Given the above simple model i.e. 4 main servers inc domain controller/filestore, Exchange (granular restore required) and SQL and the need to choose whether to backup to tape or NAS iSCSI volume (as tape backup has a habit of failing now and again for no obvious reason) I'm not sure what the best upgrade product would be.

What are the essential differences between Backup Exec 2010 and Backup Exec for Windows Small Business Server?  There's also a Ghost-like Backup Exec System Protection product I gather which is image based but I'm not sure what Exchange data could be extracted from a recovery point for starters!  I guess that might be another option.

Can anyone advise?  Be gentle with me - this is my first time!

Thanks

[CraigV · Accepted solution]

Hi,

well, to run BE for SBS you need an SBS server...if you don't have 1, you'd need the following:

1. Backup Exec for Windows Servers (to be installed on your server as a media server)

2. 1 x Exchange agent to back up Exchange. This also comes with a RAWS agent (Remote Agent for Windows Servers)

3. 1 x SQL agent to back up SQL. This also comes with a RAWS agent.

4. 1 x RAWS agent for the DC/file server.

You can back up Active Directory and would then need the ADRA agent, but if you don't need to back up AD, the RAWS agent will allow you to do the necessary.

Go for BE 2010 R3 which is the latest version and offers support for the latest software...just be aware that to back up Exchange 2010 for instance, BE needs to be installed on a server with an x64-bit OS!

Thanks!

[RahulG]

There is no major difference between Backup Exec 2010 and Backup Exec for Windows Small Business Server. the main difference is the licensing part the SBS license is bundled with Exchange and SQl agent and it is good for small network which has a Windows SBS installed .

If you install BE 2010 , you would need to purchase additional SQl and exchange agent license seperately .

[Moggyman]

Right - the thick plottens.....

The backup server is Windows 2003 Standard so I guess I'm looking at BE 2010 plus SQL and Exchange agents. Exchange is 2003 so I should be OK with a 32-bit environment.  I don't backup AD so I probably wouldn't bother with the agent for that.  The thought of restoring AD chills my blood.

I take it that the image-based Server Protection product wouldn't allow the same restore flexibility (i.e. granular Exchange recovery) or there's some other complication like it might not capture images to a NAS drive for example?  You don't usually find out these quirks until you've parted with your cash and try to use the product in anger! Or is this image-based option just a dumb idea?

Thanks all.

[CraigV]

...it depends on what your recovery requirements are...if you can get away with a bit of downtime to restore data to a server after reinstalling the OS, the an image-based solution isn't necessary.

To be honest, we have a very large and wide-spread environment and we do agent backups all over. The reason for this is the storage required to do image-based backups doesn't justify the cost. Even on our small sites.

So it is the necessary data to do a successful restore, and the necessary agents to do GRT restores.

[Moggyman]

True.

Thanks again