No more hiding in the server room
Backing up Windows PCs on a very small network
The office set up comprise of a few Ubuntu Desktop PCs, and a few Windows PCs and a file server.
Each day a script runs on the Ubuntu machines that dumps databases, gets a list of installed applications, exports SVN and rsyncs a load of files and settings to the file server for backup.
The windows machines are backed up using the built in backup utility.
This produces a .bkf file which means nothing to me.
Can you open it and restore files from it?
What about restoring to another machine or mounting it in another location?
I got bitten when I backed up an XP machine before upgrading to Windows 7 and then found that I couldn't import the .bkf file. Is had kept the original hard drive so it wasn't a disaster but what is the point of having a backup if you cannot restore it?
So how am I supposed to back up Windows machines so that I can easily see the backed up files on the server.
I am tempted to just install Cygwin and Rsync on the Windows machines. I doubt this is the best way to do this.
I really want a solution, scripted or off the shelf that will allow me to backup MySQL databases, SVN repositories, email, files and application settings.
But for now just files, settings and email would be fine.
I have a budget of $0.00 but may be able to increase this if there is a compelling reason to do so.
Each day a script runs on the Ubuntu machines that dumps databases, gets a list of installed applications, exports SVN and rsyncs a load of files and settings to the file server for backup.
The windows machines are backed up using the built in backup utility.
This produces a .bkf file which means nothing to me.
Can you open it and restore files from it?
What about restoring to another machine or mounting it in another location?
I got bitten when I backed up an XP machine before upgrading to Windows 7 and then found that I couldn't import the .bkf file. Is had kept the original hard drive so it wasn't a disaster but what is the point of having a backup if you cannot restore it?
So how am I supposed to back up Windows machines so that I can easily see the backed up files on the server.
I am tempted to just install Cygwin and Rsync on the Windows machines. I doubt this is the best way to do this.
I really want a solution, scripted or off the shelf that will allow me to backup MySQL databases, SVN repositories, email, files and application settings.
But for now just files, settings and email would be fine.
I have a budget of $0.00 but may be able to increase this if there is a compelling reason to do so.
Views: 32
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Robert Chipperfield on -
I've gone down the cygwin / rsync route with a few home PCs, and that normally works well, but I've struggled on a few occasions with some slightly broken builds of rsync / ssh not quite behaving as they should.
Less on the backup and more on the sync side of things, there's also Unison (http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/unison/), which can run on Windows, but again is really developed as a Unix app. It's quite neat in handling two-way sync well, though, including file deletions, since it keeps a baseline. Where it did fall down for me at one point was the lack of knowledge of Windows ACLs. Not an issue for single-user systems, but did make it unsuitable for domain storage hosts.
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Permalink Reply by Richard Holloway on -
That's useful Robert, thanks. I haven't used Unison for a while, but now you mention it it will do what I need.
What I want to know though, is what is the "normal" way to do Windows Desktop Backups for office PCs?
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Permalink Reply by Graycat on -
As far as I've run across there is no normal method used for backing up Windows desktops. Certainly not in my environment!
Our stand point is that all business related data should be on a server of some description and then this is replicated, backed up and generally looked after a lot better than the client machines.
If I had to backup desktops etc, I'd use the same methodology as any other new backup design - approach it from the other side, ie: what do I want to be able to restore.
If it is the machine is self with system state then good luck, however if it is simply a few directories then there are many solutions both free and paid for.
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Permalink Reply by Richard Holloway on
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Your point about planning it from the restore point of view is what I am trying to do.
A bkf file is a backup file, but is not a restore solution. There is no point I can see in having a bkf file.
I think Unison is likely to be the answer, certainly for my situation of having very few stand alone machines. It may be different if user profiles were on the server or I could trust users to actually save stuff where they are supposed to, on the network drives.
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Permalink Reply by John McGrath on -
I have to go with Graycat on this one.
Windows has a terrible back up utility, and restoring it is a nightmare.
Keeping your mission critical/business data on servers, where they belong. I keep images of the small network that I support, and restore the base image when the Windows boxes become corrupt.
Create shares on the server for users home/My Documents folders, and create a shared directory for business data.
That way the desktops can be wiped and restored, and all of the users data should be still there.
I have not used Unison on Windows computers, but I have used Syncback (http://www.2brightsparks.com/syncback/), which is similar.
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Permalink Reply by Graycat on
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I've used the 2brightsparks stuff in the past and it's worked pretty well.
Personally I replaced it with either an xcopy or robocopy script as I prefer knowing 100% what's going on at any one point. Oh and I'm a geek at heart :o) lol
You might also want to have a look folder synchronization or even profile redirection if you've got the Windows infrastructure behind you.
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Permalink Reply by Jason Short on -
BKFs are inconvenient, but not [completely] worthless. To do a bare metal restore, you have to install the OS again, then restore the BKF file(s). Restoring them to a machine with different hardware would be involved but probably doable with enough work. That's a Windows limitation more than a crappy backup software limitation.
Note that Microsoft finally fixed the bare metal restore thing in Windows 7.
Since you're running multiple platforms, have you looked at Amanda? http://amanda.zmanda.com/
I'll throw in my two bits with everyone else - workstations are not a good place to keep important data. (Though I realize overcoming user inertia can be hard)
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Permalink Reply by Richard Holloway on
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Documents and files are saved on the file server. I don't want to give the impression that we are completely unorganised here. Some files are not on the server because they are things like emails and web browser bookmarks, IM chats, etc.
Is it just that I have the wrong infrastructure?
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Permalink Reply by Robert Chipperfield on
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I suspect you're in a very similar situation to us - all the business critical data is stored centrally and backed up (either on file shares, or in source control in the case of code), but that's not to say I'd be happy if you took a sledgehammer to my desktop's disk!
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Permalink Reply by Richard Holloway on
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It does sound like we have the same scenario.
But I wouldn't be too bothered if you took a sledgehammer to my desktop machine, from the data point of view anyway.
It might be a hassle clearing up and getting fragments of casing out of the walls.
I would be out of action for just under an hour.
I often test my backups in less exciting ways, but I have a working and tested restore path.
I want to provide the same assurance to all my colleagues, not just those running Linux Desktops. I am now thinking of sharing the C drives of the PCs and mounting them on the file server running Linux and then using rsync at that end.
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Permalink Reply by John McGrath on
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Whatever works for your environment is what is best.
I have been slowly moving towards a linux server infrastructure, so it makes sense for me to redirect the few windows computers that are left.
I work in a Windows infrastructure at my job, but support a smaller network of mixed systems.
I have not used Amanda... Does it do bare metal restores?
@Graycat: xcopy and Robocopy are great tools, but didn't work as expected in my environment. But I bow to your geekness :-)
YMMV-
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Permalink Reply by Richard Holloway on
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Just in case anyone is interested:
The reason that I was having difficulty in getting a solution that I could be happy with, was that I was approaching it the wrong way round. I was looking at a way for the client PCs to push backups to the server.
I have changed my focus on getting a server solution to pull backups from the clients.
I have abandoned my initial knee jerk reaction of mounting shares on the linux file server so they appear as local folders and using rsync. I have instead plumped for BackupPC, which is okay so far.
Not great but okay.
I can use rsync for the Linux clients and samba for the Windows clients.
The Windows 7 machines are proving problematic in so much that the version of Samba installed on the file server is 3.0.4 and support for Windows 7 file sharing wasn't introduced until 3.4. I am upgrading the server soon anyway so will continue with this later and I am sure this will work out fine.
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