Backups

[Guest Samuel]

Hi,

 

I am trying to understand best practices/how tos. I have a couple of questions

 

 

1) How do I backup a Terminal Server?

 

Do I need to back up the system state of the terminal server?

 

what other things to I need to back up?

 

2) On ISA Server 2004 - what do i need to backup apart from the

configuration of ISA Server itself?

 

Do I need to back up the system state?

 

 

3) I have a server running MS Great Plains 9 - what do I need to backup

apart from the Sql Server Database?

 

4) On a Domain controller apart from backing up the system state - do I need

to back up the DNS?

 

What about DHCP?

 

 

5) virtual machine backups? we are running Virtual Server 2005 RC2 - do I

need to take a file level backup of the virtual server from the host machine.

 

6) Exchange 2003 ... what does symantec backexec 11d do which we can't do

using ntbackup.

how do I justify so buying symantec - as we never having money for IT.

 

 

 

Thanks

[Guest Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

Re: Backups

 

Samuel <Samuel@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

> Hi,

>

> I am trying to understand best practices/how tos. I have a couple of

> questions

>

>

> 1) How do I backup a Terminal Server?

 

Using whatever backup app/medium you like!

>

> Do I need to back up the system state of the terminal server?

 

I would, periodically. But there shouldn't be any data on it. I'd actually

recommend something like Acronis TrueImage.....it's a great product and will

back up *everything* . On a TS box, it's a pain to reinstall apps, etc., so

a periodic image-based backup can be a godsend.

>

> what other things to I need to back up?

>

> 2) On ISA Server 2004 - what do i need to backup apart from the

> configuration of ISA Server itself?

 

I don't think you need to back up anything else, but I'm not an ISA person.

You might want to ask that in an ISA group.

>

> Do I need to back up the system state?

 

It's often a good idea, but again, probably not necessary unless you have a

lot of local users/groups on the box.

>

>

> 3) I have a server running MS Great Plains 9 - what do I need to

> backup apart from the Sql Server Database?

>

> 4) On a Domain controller apart from backing up the system state - do

> I need to back up the DNS?

 

Hmmm - I'm not sure how you could do that - but if you have more than one DC

you've got a backup of your DNS already due to replication.

>

> What about DHCP?

 

See

http://www.computerperformance.co.uk/w2k3/services/DHCP_Database_Backup.htm

if you wish to do this (I don't usually back up my DHCP database separately

as I run small networks).

>

>

> 5) virtual machine backups? we are running Virtual Server 2005 RC2 -

> do I need to take a file level backup of the virtual server from the

> host machine.

 

Again, all of this is up to you. I don't know what you're running. You can

back up your virtual machine *files* themselves, certainly, and I would if

these are used in production.

>

> 6) Exchange 2003 ... what does symantec backexec 11d do which we

> can't do using ntbackup.

 

Allows for more customization and mailbox/folder level backups (but the

latter are not recommended anyway)

> how do I justify so buying symantec - as we never having money for

> IT.

 

You don't need it. You can use NTBackup either on the Exchange server

itself, or on any server in the domain that has the Exchange management

tools installed. Do not try to back up the flat database files. You need to

run a full online backup of your storage groups in order to purge the

committed transaction logs.

>

>

>

> Thanks

 

HTH.