Question

Want to backup the entire Small Business 2003 Server

Backup, SBS 2003, Small Business Server

We are running Windows SBS 2003 on 10 client computers. Current backup software provided with our Iomega REV 70 drive is impenetrable & very unuser friendly - it is ARCServe Backup

Can you advise me what you would recommend as backup hardware & software we need to make the whole backup process much more simple, effective & with minimum user input.

My clients are Accountants & just want things to work with the minimum hassle & user involvement for them.

Their needs are very simple - Once a fortnight we want to backup the entire SBS 2003 Server. We want to do daily backups of approx 6 Main Folders on the server. We are not backing up the workstations. We might also wish to go back to a point, say three weeks ago to restore a file.

They have a budget of £1,000.00 for a backup solution

I currently have to use ARCServe also, and yes it is un-user-friendly and a POS... However, it will do backups simply, once you get it setup. It will do exactly what you are describing. If the main interface is too cumbersome, just use their "Wizard".

If you have the space, you could do full backups every day of the 6 folders you require, Monday-Thursday, then have rotating full Friday backups, for each Friday of the month, 1-4 or 1-5, then you can go back in time to restore. The same can be said for monthly backups. Like I said, much of this depends on how much room you have on your backup media.

In regard to backing up the whole server, I would make an image of the server using Ghost or something similar. Keep your images up to date after major changes, and test them, if possible.