Re: What backup software do you use and why?

Sorry, I'm the wrong one to ask. I have almost no experience with Acronis, although I know it's a well respected product. I was having ongoing backup issues with a member server, and someone introduced me to the ShadowProtect crew at SMBNation in 2006. I installed the trial when I got back, and I've been using it ever since. It's really the only thing I've used other than Arcserve and SBS Backup.

If you're interested in trying it, I'm pretty sure you can just go to their web site and download the trial. I ran it on a test server for a while, so I can confirm that it installs and uninstalls cleanly, at least in my experience.

One other thing - does Acronis have hardware-independent restore? ShadowProtect has a thing where you can restore the backups to a VM, or to different hardware, by booting off the ShadowProtect disk and configuring the drivers for the new hardware as step 1 in the restore process. I have not had to use this, but I've seen it demonstrated where someone restored a server to a VM on a laptop and got up and running relatively quickly. I sleep better knowing that if a server goes down, I'll be able to restore it to whatever hardware I have on hand, and that the office will be running while we wait for replacement hardware.


"dan" <dan(removethis)@westerveltconsulting.com> wrote in message news:%23WWvmOpbIHA.5164@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Dave, can you say why ShadowProtect is better than Acronis True Image Server in your experience? I use Acronis but not ShadowProtect and I'm curious what it does better than Acronis. Thanks.

"Dave Nickason [SBS MVP]" <gwdibble@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:D5DBCD4D-10F8-472B-B121-39AD7390B5E2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I use ShadowProtect Server on all of my member servers. It's really great software for a variety of reasons - it's quick, reliable, simple to configure, and it just works well all the time. I do a full backup of each server once a week, with 4 incremental backups per day, to a storage server on the network. At night, the ShadowProtect backups copy out to a High Rely external SATA drive for offsite storage. I recommend downloading the trial version and using it for a couple of days, after which you'll be sold on it. It won't interfere with any other backup software you may be using now, so the trial isn't much work. It'll uninstall cleanly if you don't like it, or you can just buy a copy and add the license key to the existing install. (One thing to note is that it doesn't support tape). http://www.storagecraft.com/

On my SBS, I'm using Arcserve 11.5. The primary reason why I'm using it is because I bought it prior to the release of SBS 2003. IMO the backup in SBS 2003 is so good, I would not spend money for a 3rd party backup solution if I hadn't owned it previously. Another reason for Arcserve is brick level Exchange backup. Again with Exchange 2003 and recovery storage groups, not something I would spend money on. Arcserve on my SBS is working fine, which is the only reason I have not abandoned it in favor of the ShadowProtect SBS version.

As an aside, I've had an absolutely horrible experience with Arcserve on my 64-bit Windows 2003 Storage Server. IMO, although their support quality has improved greatly over the years, their software quality has room for improvement.

"Rich" <nospam@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:eOvvRXobIHA.1168@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I'm currently looking for an alternative server backup solution and am interested to hear what software you are using, and why do you use it?

BTW On my servers I use a mix of NTBackup and Symantec Backup Exec v10 & v11. Have also tried Acronis True Image Server. And am not in love with any of them ;-)

--

Rich

http://www.badangling.com
...talking pollocks since 1996






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