Windows server backup software?

So I am helping out a friend with a small company, 10-15 workstations with windows server.. 2003... (I know I know)

I have been looking for decent software, such as BackupAssist, Acronis. but those are really on the expensive side, I was hoping for something at or less then $100.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

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GAngel

Per user or total?

If you mean $100 total buy a usb drive and use the internal backup or a drive clone software.

cyberguypr

Yeah, clarify the scope. Do you want to just backup the server or also the workstations? I've had great success with Symantec System Recovery Server Edition running on server 2003 and 2008.

Dyasis

Yeah sorry, just the server.

NetworkingStudent

I suggest Shadow Protect.

Are you backing up just the server? Are you backing up workstations?

What about AV?

Does the site need file backups or system backups?

Does the site need office 365?

More info is needed

What is ShadowProtect?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrjsgfUI_kk&list=PL3F89C37C3C64D8AC

About Us & Our IT Solutions | StorageCraft

Disaster Recovery & Backup Software for Windows Server 2012, 2008, 2003 | StorageCraft ShadowProtect

Features and benefits of ShadowProtect Server

Backup
• Capture everything—systems, applications, configuration settings, services, data—on your servers
• Back up Microsoft SQL, Exchange, and SharePoint servers and other critical application servers, including updates in memory
• Encrypt a backup job to protect backup images to securely protect data
• Save backups to any disk device (such as removable, local, and network drives) or any optical media (CDs, DVDs, and Blu-Ray discs)
• Back up a non-bootable system before attempting a

Even if you backup to an internal drive on the server, what do you do when the server goes down? What if the backup drive or the main drive fails on the server?

Can you arrive on site and replace/repair the server in 24 hours or less?

What is your friend's expectation of the level of service that you are going to provide?

These are just some of the things that I know can happen and need to be addressed.

Asif Dasl

You make a decision on backup software not on initial cost but what gets the business up and running pretty damn quick if the worst happens like a full server failure. I think $1000 is nothing compared to the wages of 10-15 people sitting around for a few hours (possibly a day) waiting for IT to fix the server or worse total backup failure and loss of data.

I would get something which can get your backup running as a VM on VMware or Hyper-V... Acronis would be my choice as I haven't heard of ShadowProtect before - I checked the price and it was more expensive than Acronis?

TechGuy215

Have to agree with everyone else, you need to be more specific...

What software is the server running?

SQL
Exchange
SharePoint
Etc...

What roles is the server performing?

Print
Terminal Services
File Sharing
Etc...

In any case, Asif's suggestion of a virtual infrastructure would certainly be the most ideal, as you can fail over extremely quickly to a VM. That being said, the cost isn't really practical for such a small infrastructure.

I believe Symantec Ghosts is still a viable and rather cheap solution for imaging and deployment of said images. That being said I would run a daily differential backup of your data, and a weekly backup of the current image of the server and clients.

Asif Dasl

TechGuy215 wrote: »

That being said, the cost isn't really practical for such a small infrastructure.

I probably should have done a quick bit of math earlier... let's say there are 15 employees and they earn an average of $40,000 between them. They work 5 days a week and the maximum the boss says they can be down is a day...

15 employees x $40,000 salary = $600,000 in staff salary per year.

$600,000 / 260 (5 days per week) = $2308 per day in lost wages for downtime.

And that's not including lost sales for that day or the possibility of customers going to a competitor for good or overtime required to make up the lost day of productivity.

Small businesses are least able to withstand a server going down on them, which is why it makes sense to spend money wisely. $1000 is a drop in the ocean compared to what they are paying out in salaries not including other expenses.

If IT can get the server up in less than half a day that's already saved $1154 + sales + overtime = big savings over the long term.

Just something to think about.

cyberguypr

Great discussion going on here. I have a feeling the OP will bring the typical small company problem where they don't see the value of lost data and lost productivity and just want to spend as little as possible on something they think will solve all their problems.

taternuts666

I work for an MSP in which we support a lot of small town, city, and county governments and non-profits. Also some small businesses (anywhere from 5-100 employees). It's amazing to me how hard it is to get these customers to understand the importance of backing up their data. So many of these decision makers just want the lowest cost option.

It is always very obvious which of these decision makers have gone through some sort of data loss / disaster recovery fiasco before. They are much more apt to spend the extra money to get a reliable backup and recovery solution.

Dyasis

Okay, so I am setting them up with an external usb drive, which they may end up getting 2 or 3 of those and keep one offsite and rotate them out. I also recommended them in getting a cloud based backup as well for their data (but that's $800 yr).

Some of you are directing your statements towards me as far as "the importance of offsite, expensive programs etc" I know all this, but if a small company does not have the budget, then they don't have the budget, regardless if it's the proper way to do it.

Just for a decent backup software and cloud based, your looking at around $1300. Add in roughly $300 for the external drives. They have also had to purchase 2 workstations to replace others that are just flat out to old to be productive. that's over $3000. With all of that, it was well over what they had in their budget. The fact that the know me and understand I am not out to just get money from them is how I have been able to get them to purchase what I have. Again, they do know that at some point they will have to get better software/equipment.

I do appreciate the concern, I really do, but I cannot get blood from a turnip. They will be adding more as I get everything up to date and fix the hell hole the last "IT" person did.

@NetworkingStudent Really? I'm discussing how I needed something on the cheaper side and you refer me to something that's $1000??

cyberguypr

Saw it coming a mile away. Nothing wrong with having limited/no budget as long as the expectations are set appropriately. In this case you might as well go with native tools as GAngel mentioned. Not sure what experience you have but make sure you focus your effort on restores. Lots of people set backups and never test restores. Usually they find out way too late that the can't bring anything back from the dead.

Another issue: where to keep those backups. Obligatory read: Code Spaces: A Lesson In Cloud Backup - Network Computing

If you want a cheap online solution, data is fairly static, and recovery time is fairly flexible, you can look into AWS | Amazon Glacier. It's an archival solution but definitely another layer of protection in case SHTF arrives.

wes allen

Crashplan - software is free and you can use local external drives, someones home machine, or pay for their cloud space:

Powerful Multi-Destination Backup - CrashPlan

Asif Dasl

@Dyasis - just make sure you are not the only one who said "Yes".. I've been there and frankly it wasn't worth the effort to save them money when SHTF. If I went in to business again supporting small businesses as I did in the past - I would probably **** a customer like that like a stone.

There is no profit to be made with customers like that and they are likely to be the ones with a wiring cabinet like below! They really don't want to be fixed they are your bare minimum customer who frankly is not worth the effort when you could be working for top dollar clients where they know you make a profit but you are saving them tons of SHTF.

Good luck with it anyways.

qcomer

Dyasis, pm me. I may have a solution that's affordable for you. We sell a cloud and local based backup solution that might fit your needs

jibbajabba

cyberguypr wrote: »

Great discussion going on here. I have a feeling the OP will bring the typical small company problem where they don't see the value of lost data and lost productivity and just want to spend as little as possible on something they think will solve all their problems.

Yea seen this 100 times when I was working in an MSP .. So many customers claimed that their company / lives and family depend on that single server not willing to spend a decent amount of money for backups.

Dyasis wrote: »

Okay, so I am setting them up with an external usb drive

Ouch .. obviously nothing you can do if there isn't a budget .. I'd be worried if a company cannot spend $3000. Worried especially if my salary is a multiple of that.

I worked for a company which couldn't afford a work laptop so I pulled their official financial data .. It was an interesting read and motivation to update my CV / resume

rsutton

If you are not going to specify the requirements then why are you asking for help? Since you apparently have no requirements, just use the built-in NTbackup since it's free.

Dayton15

I am doing backup of my windows server through Ahsay Backup Software. Ahsay is a robust cross- platform backup solution which allows businesses and managed backup service provider to backup virtual machines, We can run virtualized backup server in the public cloud such as Amazon S3 so that we don't need to maintain any server and storage hardware. So try it one time....Ahsay On-Premises/Online/Off-Site/Cloud Backup Software