Drive Imaging Backup using Windows Server Backup
BackupAssist schedules and manages the block-level backup features in Windows Server 2008, providing excellent data protection and disaster recovery capabilities. The hardware independent restore (HIR) features allow you to completely recover a server to dissimilar hardware, at fast hard-drive speeds (70-90 Gig/hr).
Combined with BackupAssist's easy to configure UI, extended hardware support and powerful email reporting, you've got a complete drive imaging solution at the fraction of the price of the competitors, and with none of the hassles of manual scripting or scheduling wbadmin.exe.
Licensing
BackupAssist (File Replication & NTBackup also included in this licence)
Supported OS
Windows Server 2008, Vista (Business or better)
Method
Block level backup of volumes to disk based devices (HDD, rdx, REV, NAS)
Resources
One page fact sheet
PDF Presentation
How it works, best practices for backups, backup scenarios and restore options
Feature comparison
BackupAssist versus in-built Microsoft wizards
- Excellent protection for complete server recovery
- Hardware independent restores from bare-metal
- Fast differential backups
- Full, comprehensive reporting and monitoring
- Ideal as a primary backup solution
Benefit from Microsoft's new backup engine
BackupAssist builds upon Microsoft's block level backup engine, meaning that you can benefit from the features already present in the operating system:
- Fast block-based imaging backups
- Automatic space management on backup device (oldest backups are deleted when space fills up)
- Restore using the Windows Recovery Environment - use the Windows install DVD or burn your own recovery disc
However, BackupAssist also adds significant functionality and overcomes numerous limitations as described below.
Full reporting and monitoring
BackupAssist's reporting gives you confidence that your backups are working and notifies you whenever problems occur. This means that you'll never be left with silent failures. Reports can be emailed to administrator(s), showing:
- Vital statistics - backup size, time taken
- Overall status - success, errors or warnings
- Detailed log
- Media usage graph - shows how full the backup device is
- Past backup versions - lists the available past versions of backups on the device
Extended hardware support
Whereas the in-built wizards in Server 2008 only support USB HDD, BackupAssist supports USB HDD as well as NAS, Local disk, eSata disk, rdx drives (such as the RD1000 and QuikStor) and Iomega REV.
In addition, BackupAssist allows you to see the contents of the backup device (it keeps the drive letter), and it manages things like "Safely remove hardware" and "Add new hardware" to both eject and inject devices to make sure that the backup runs. Additionally, it will also cater for situations where a USB drive's drive letter changes.
Media rotation and device checking
The concept of media rotation involves having multiple backup devices in a "pool", and swapping these devices onsite and offsite. The purpose is to have a variety of restore points, and to have them stored in different physical locations. Unfortunately, the Microsoft wizards provide you with absolutely no help in managing this process.
In contrast, BackupAssist contains numerous important features that help maximize your backup's effectiveness by minimizing human error and enhances the reliability and effectiveness of the entire system.
- Built-in media rotation strategies.
- Best practices at the click of a button.
- Specific instructions sent to the backup operator.
- Checking is done every night to make sure that the backup devices are rotated according to plan.
- If the wrong device is connected, BackupAssist can be configured to either backup anyway and display a warning in the backup report, or to abort the backup altogether.
File based backups
Finally, as the new Windows Server Backup infrastructure is image based, it does not support backing up specific files and directories, whether they be local or remote (via network share).
However, BackupAssist provides a solution for this - within the product (and at no extra cost) is our File Replication Engine - a separate backup method that allows you to copy files, complete with VSS support and full NTFS security / extended data stream support, from any location to any other location.
- File based backup capabilities
- Simple approach based on exact, VSS aware file copying
- Backup local and remote (network) files
Restoring your Windows Server 2008 system
There are two methods of restoring data from a Windows 2008 system.
The first method is to use the Windows Server Backup Recovery Wizard to mount an image and restore individual files or entire volumes. A simple wizard (pictured to the right) is provided to make this process easy.
The second method is for a bare metal restore - use the Windows DVD (or a recovery CD) to perform a restore from your image. This is an automated process - simply configure a few simple options and Windows will automatically rebuild the system.
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