Disaster recovery for a SBS2000 server

[John Beman]

What do you all reccomend as far as backing a SBS2000 server up with?

I'll explain a little more. I have lots of data in various directories, I
don't need to worry about this. I tape backup is always done every day, and
it is not the master copy of this data anyway. The bits I am worried about
is the actuall install and setup of the server. IP's, DNS, Exchange, Web
access, accounts, etc. I only have 6 users on this server and no email is
stored on it, but I would like to store the mail on it. The backup and
restore procedures aren't in place yet.

Is there a way to utilise a seperate server to 'mirror' this one, or can i
have a BDC to promote if needed. I am looking for a relatively easy way to
get up and running again if this server was to die!

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks

John

[Jeff Middleton [SBS-MVP]]

The best process is to run a tape drive on the SBS, do full and complete
backups EVERY day, don't do incremental, use a different tape everyday,
don't append.

As for what to backup, select the entire file space, System State, and
Exchange Information Store. If you are using NT backup, you can backup
Exchange this way and have a fully recoverable backup set. All of the
information to rebuild an SBS and recover it from bare metal is possible in
this manner.

A BDC doesn't really make this process easier than the tape backup above
would. A BDC would perhaps allow you to work on certain file access only
types of stuff, but the effort to convert a BDC to replace the SBS is by far
more technically complicated that restoring the SBS from tape.

For only 6 users, a second server would be pretty exceptional
overkill....and only justified in very unusual situations that have exposure
to loss of life or exceptional money loss for brief periods of time. For
instance, if you are a broker who could lose $10K in 30 minutes, you
qualify. Most businesses don't and if they did, SBS is really not the
product they should be using anyway.

No, there's not a way to mirror your server in a cost effective manner.

"John Beman" <cric...@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
news:1005152569.22560....@news.demon.co.uk...

[John Beman]

Thanks for this re-assurance Jeff. If I could ask two more questions?

I have a lot of data/source code, at the moment this is backed up
seperately. I would still prefer this to take place. This way I can take
this offsite before leaving for home. I assume that I can do this first in
my normal manner, then use the NTbackup wizard, choose selected files, tick
everything and then untick my data directory.

The second question is the obvious one, how would I do a restore from this
type of backup? If my server was dead, I assume I would have to build
another SBS to do the restore on, would I not need all my settings for this,
or would I do anything here as they would get overwritten in the restore?

Thanks in advance to you all..

John

"Jeff Middleton [SBS-MVP]" <je...@cfisolutions.com> wrote in message
news:#fVYH77ZBHA.1452@tkmsftngp04...

[Dave Nickason]

We do full tape backups every night and take them off site the following
day. However, when we have data that is absolutely critical, we back it up
to zip disks and take them offsite. For example, if I'm in the middle of a
major project and the servers get stolen, I can work on my home computer
until the situation gets resolved. These are mostly Office documents, etc.
We use a batch file to copy the files to the zip, but Iomega QuikSync
software is another option - it will copy any directories you select to any
media you select, automatically whenever you save a file.

"John Beman" <cric...@ntlworld.com> wrote in message

news:1005213054.21494....@news.demon.co.uk...

[Jeff Middleton [SBS-MVP]]

This is one of those questions where the answer is likely to blow you away
in scary documentation. Here's my description of the process of a bare metal
recovery:

On a clean drive, run the Win2K Server installation from the CD.
Install your tape drivers
Restore your tape
Do an authoritative restore (Q241594)

That in a generic sense works with any server, any backup program, any
backup devices. The only thing critical is that you must be performing
online backups of the Exchange, SQL and System State. Failing online backups
of these items, you have a huge problem and more complications. You get to
read!

The most reasonably short explanation of the process is these two KBs:

How to Move a Windows Installation to Different Hardware (Q249694)
Q241594 How to Perform an Authoritative Restore to a Domain Controller

For more robust info:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/prodtechn
ol/windows2000serv/support/recovery.asp

Windows NT4.0 and Windows 2000 Disaster Recovery and Backup and Restore
Procedures (Q287061)

Q241594 How to Perform an Authoritative Restore to a Domain Controller
Q216243 Impact of Authoritative Restore on Trusts and Computer Accounts

"John Beman" <cric...@ntlworld.com> wrote in message

news:1005213054.21494....@news.demon.co.uk...