Backup Software for NAS

[jim]

Just wondering if anybody had any good suggestions for backup software I could use, that will operate over the network automatically every night (100Mbps) to a remote NAS.

I firstly need one for copying over files, e.g. documents and so on, maybe up to 400GB of those. Ideally it would only make alterations, as I expect 98% of the files to remain the same on a daily basis and don't want to be overwriting them all the time - I've used Allway Sync before and considered using that but it's not particularly designed for such huge amounts of data, and freely admits in the FAQ that it will probably crash if it syncs a lot of files.

Secondly I need one to make OS images, on Server 2003. I was thinking Acronis, but their imaging software appears to be for personal use, and I've never used any of their business products that they're advertising. This again would be nice if it was automatic, maybe once a week or something.

Obviously free would be lovely, but if a paid solution is best then that's fine - I'm assuming that since this isn't for personal use it will be tough to get anything for free unless it's open source.

[aidanjt]

cp, rsync, and dd ~

Although in seriousness, you can get rsync for windows, and there's a fair number of disk cloning software, any of them should do the job, just go with whatever is cheaper. You could even use dd from a linux live/rescuecd after mounting the samba share.

[Funkstar]

Secondly I need one to make OS images, on Server 2003. I was thinking Acronis, but their imaging software appears to be for personal use, and I've never used any of their business products that they're advertising.

That is one thing preventing me from moving my "server" to Server 2008. I can license it through TechNet, but any other tools and apps running on it are going to need the server version, which is horribly expensive.

One thing I would be tempted to do is write a script that will wrap all your files up in a compressed archive. Zip or RAR or something similar. Then copy that across the network.

You will get better transfer speeds with one large file rather that thousands of small ones, the compression will add error checking and recovery, you will probably get a really good compression ratio as well, especially with Office documents.

I'm pretty sure WinRAR has the ability to create a RAR and then to re-create it but only replacing the files that have changed. You could even tell it to split the archive at 4.35GB for easy archival onto DVD.

The down side of this is the need for more disk space on the server, especially while it is creating the archive, but I think it is worth it. And is something I have thought about doing recently.

[jim]

Every time I write a post, I always miss out something crucial. In this instance, the crucial word was "automatic" or "nightly". I need (possibly want, but we'll use need) it to be automatic - I'm sure I could do it with task schedular and batch files or something, but nonetheless :/

Cost isn't really that big a deal, so even if it's £40 for nothing more than a fancy gui I'm sure it'll be okay. My hope for free was probably unrealistic

[Funkstar]

Scheduling the running of a script to archive and then copy the file across the network shouldn't be that big a deal.

If I wasn't going away to Egypt this afternoon, I'd try and knock something together for you. Really shouldn't be difficult at all.

[jim]

Scheduling the running of a script to archive and then copy the file across the network shouldn't be that big a deal.

If I wasn't going away to Egypt this afternoon, I'd try and knock something together for you. Really shouldn't be difficult at all.

I'll look into it, see what I can come up with.

[Funkstar]

Far more satisfying than spending money

And far more flexible too!

[aidanjt]

Yeah, it shouldn't be all that difficult. It's more or less a simple matter of running a sequence of commands, and getting task scheduler to execute the script at a given interval.

[jim]

Good grief!

I've been using Winrar for years, had no idea it had flexibility and features like that... consider me stunned. I think that will suit the backup down to the ground, nice and simple, and with the added "satisfaction" bonus as you said.

Disk cloning is proving more difficult... Acronis want £750 for their server equivalent of True Image. Hmm, let me think long and hard...

[Splash]

Good grief!

I've been using Winrar for years, had no idea it had flexibility and features like that... consider me stunned. I think that will suit the backup down to the ground, nice and simple, and with the added "satisfaction" bonus as you said.

Disk cloning is proving more difficult... Acronis want £750 for their server equivalent of True Image. Hmm, let me think long and hard...

Does it *have* to be server 2003? The backup utility in 2k8 will happily create an image for you.

[jim]

Does it *have* to be server 2003? The backup utility in 2k8 will happily create an image for you.

I know, it's extremely frustrating. I imagine it'll be server 2003 for at least another 3-4 years, by which time it's nothing to do with me any more.

[lodore]

for the OS imaging how about image for windows? its around £40 and works on windows server.
it has two recovery discs which you have a wizard to create. one is a linux based recovery cd and allows you to mount samba shares.

for backing up your nas why not try karen's replicator?
its free. ive setup 5 backup jobs which run daily and it has never failed. after the first backup it will backup the changes only.

i brought winrar last month and had no idea it had those sort of features either. if i have time i may replace Karen's replicator with winrar backups.